Court Opinion

ID: 9640752
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:14:30.540822+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:32.620855
License: Public Domain

CULVER, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the result reached by the majority. However, I do so with caution because I believe that legislative caps on medical malpractice awards could be consistent with the Texas Constitution under certain circumstances.
The damages limitations contained in Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4590i, §§ 11.02 and 11.03 would not unconstitutionally limit Lucas’ right of access to the courts for a “remedy by due course of law” if the legislature had seen fit to provide Lucas and those similarly situated with an alternative remedy. The majority notes that “in two of the jurisdictions in which damages caps were upheld, the fact that alternative remedies were provided weighed heavily in the decisions,” citing Johnson v. St. Vincent Hospital, 273 Ind. 374, 404 N.E.2d 585, 601 (1980) and Sibley v. Board of Supervisors, 462 So.2d 149, 156 (La.1985), modified on rek’g, 477 So.2d 1094, 1109-10 (La.1985) (latter opinion ordering conditional remand on state equal protection challenge). The majority observes that the state legislatures of Indiana and Louisiana had established “patient compensation funds.” The majority further observes that Dean Kee-ton urged that a victim’s compensation fund be established as a substitute for the damages caps in question here. I share the concern expressed by the majority that lack of alternative remedies renders these caps unreasonable and arbitrary when bal*702anced against the purpose and basis of the statute.
I have chosen to express my views separately because I do not wish to be understood as saying that all damages caps are fundamentally unconstitutional. I do not interpret the majority opinion to stand for such a proposition, but to the extent the majority may be interpreted to so hold, I would disagree. In my view, damages caps could survive constitutional scrutiny if the statutory scheme provided an adequate alternative remedy, such as a patient compensation fund, for victims of catastrophic injuries.
SEPTEMBER 21, 1988