Opinion ID: 894534
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Marx

Text: Mason argues that Marx's negligent care, treatment, and assessment of her mental condition for discharge proximately caused her injuries. In addition, Mason asserts that her injuries arose from Marx's failure to tell Ramos about Mason's request to be simultaneously discharged with Thomas. Marx was the charge nurse with supervisory authority on duty on the evening of August 16 when Mason and Thomas requested unscheduled discharges. She contacted Meier, Thomas's attending physician, and processed his order to discharge Thomas from the facility without telling him that she was being discharged with another patient. After Mason made her discharge request, but before Marx contacted Ramos, Marx inquired why Mason wanted to leave the hospital, asked what Mason and Thomas planned to do together after leaving the hospital, and made an assessment of Mason's physical and mental condition based on her own observations during the course of their brief conversation. She did not review Mason's chart. Marx then called Ramos to tell him that Mason wanted to be discharged. Marx knew that Mason and Thomas had bonded, and that their relationship hindered their respective treatments. In her deposition, Marx says that it was her personal preference that Mason not be discharged. She did not make this known to Ramos or tell him that the two patients were being discharged together. Following Ramos's instructions, Marx discharged Mason, and she left the hospital with Thomas. Ramos testified, in his deposition, that he expected Marx to provide him with all of the information she gathered regarding the circumstances surrounding Mason's request for an early discharge including in whose care she would be entrusted after leaving the hospital. He provided testimony that [i]t would not be appropriate for any peer to accompany [Mason] outside of the hospital. Ramos elaborated that, had he known Mason was leaving with Thomas, he would have taken action to discourage her from leaving the facility. He also stated that there were measures he could have taken short of initiating involuntary commitment proceedings to keep Mason in the hospital. However, Marx only told him that Mason intended to spend time with Thomas after discharge. Just as Ramos's negligence, if any, merely allowed Mason to be in Thomas's car at the time of the accident, Marx's conduct also did not proximately cause Mason's injuries for the same reasons discussed above. We therefore hold that neither Marx's failure to fully inform Ramos of the facts of Mason's simultaneous discharge with Thomas nor an improper discharge assessment were the cause in fact of Mason's injuries. Marx's actions were necessary but not sufficient to cause Mason's injuries.