Court Opinion

ID: 9701976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:47:45.763486+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:31.754794
License: Public Domain

Connolly, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I cannot reconcile the majority’s result with our firmly established precedent. In my opinion, the district court correctly determined that Brand’s statements to Fossett and her family created no genuine issue of material fact.
The majority bases its decision on the fact that Brand made certain “statements” or “admissions” to Fossett and her family that constituted an evaluation of his own performance. Fossett introduced affidavits which showed that Brand made the following statements: “I have punctured her . . . duodenum. I made a false passage, I made a terrible mistake, I’m very very sorry.... No, it isn’t [okay]. This shouldn’t have happened.” In addition, according to Fossett, he told her that she had been “punctured” and that “the injury caused by the tube going down into [her] throat during the E.R.C.P. was not supposed to happen.” It is clear, however, that when all of Brand’s comments are read together, they give no indication of the requisite standard of care or whether his actions complied with that standard.
I fail to see how these comments are sufficient to satisfy the requirement that professional negligence be proved by expert testimony. There is no indication in Brand’s comments on whether his manner of treatment and exercise of skill demonstrated a lack of skill or knowledge or a failure to exercise reasonable care. Although his admissions are certainly sufficient to prove a prima facie case on the issue of causation, they are not sufficient to obviate the usual necessity for expert testimony on the standard of care and skill and its exercise. In short, statements or admissions characterized as “mistakes” do not necessarily mean that a standard of care has been violated.
We have long held that a physician’s negligence, unless brought under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine, must be proved by expert testimony or must fall within the common knowledge exception. See Halligan v. Cotton, 193 Neb. 331, 227 N.W.2d 10 (1975). We have even held that despite a physician’s admissions *713on causation, expert testimony is still required on the standard of care and skill and its exercise. See Halligan, supra.
In Halligan, we carefully distinguished the plaintiff’s case from other cases in which defendant doctors had admitted negligence. The court stated, “In the present case we have no admission by Dr. Cotton that his conduct was negligent. Such an admission does not follow from his testimony even by inference.” Id. at 339, 227 N.W.2d at 14.
I believe that Halligan requires this court to affirm the district court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Brand. The record demonstrates a complete absence of expert testimony on the applicable standard of care and whether Brand complied with that standard in his treatment of Fossett. Since the majority correctly finds that the facts do not satisfy the common knowledge exception, expert opinion testimony is required to raise an issue of fact as to Brand’s negligence.
Brand’s affidavit stated that his treatment of Fossett complied with the applicable standard of care for a similar physician under similar circumstances in a similar community. This was sufficient for summary judgment purposes to present a prima facie showing that he was not negligent in his treatment of Fossett. See Boyd v. Chakraborty, 250 Neb. 575, 550 N.W.2d 44 (1996). The burden then shifted to Fossett to rebut this evidence and to establish the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Brand’s comments to Fossett and her family simply do not create an issue of fact because they do not establish the applicable standard of care. How can a defendant be found liable for breach of an undefined duty?
In my opinion, Fossett failed to rebut Brand’s prima facie showing that he met the standard of care. Therefore, I would affirm the decision of the district court.
Stephan, J., joins in this dissent.