Court Opinion

ID: 9609059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:21:59.200675+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:48.659942
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
specially concurring.
I am in accord that the summary judgment in favor of Dr. Haller and the Union Pacific Railroad Employees Hospital Association (Hospital Association) and the Union Pacific Railroad Employees Health Systems (Health Systems) must be reversed. All of us agree that Dr. Haller was an independent contractor, and no liability for any of his negligence can be imputed to Hospital Association and Health Systems. With respect to Ron Munroe, I analyze the situation somewhat differently from the majority and quite differently from the dissenting justices.
I think that the applicable rules are summarized in Metzger v. Kalke, Wyo., 709 P.2d 414 (1985). We there explained Harris v. Grizzle, Wyo., 625 P.2d 747 (1981), noting that the defendant physicians did not rely solely on the absence of expert testimony by the plaintiff to justify a summary judgment in their favor. We pointed *378out that, according to the rule in other jurisdictions, a “ * * * nonmoving plaintiff has no obligation to present expert testimony at the pretrial stage, unless the movant establishes that no material questions of fact exist with respect to the allegations in the complaint.” Metzger v. Kalke, supra, 709 P.2d at 422.
In this instance, the summary judgment materials relied upon by Hospital Association and Health Systems certainly were no better than those presented by Parker. I question whether Dr. Gasser’s testimony was sufficient even to lay a foundation as to the standard of care for a physician’s assistant and whether or not Ron Munroe met that standard. Consequently, I would hold that the summary judgment in favor of Hospital Association and Health Systems must be reversed to the extent that negligence of Ron Munroe may be imputed to those defendants. Parker had no obligation to present expert testimony until the defendants had supplied appropriate affidavits or discovery materials which indicated there was no genuine issue of material fact as to the negligence of Ron Munroe. This they failed to do. Consequently, although I agree with the dissenters that the affidavit of Dr. Hoke was insufficient, in my view, it does not make any difference in this case.