Court Opinion

ID: 9641076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:22:28.463821+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:34.856147
License: Public Domain

OPINION CONCURRING IN RESULT
DON E. BURRELL, JR., Special Judge.
I respectfully disagree with the majority’s characterization of what is at issue in this case. The issue is simply whether the plaintiffs’ current petition, on its face, states a claim for which relief can be granted. This Court reviews de novo the trial court’s dismissal to determine whether the petition “invoke[s] principles of substantive law.” Weems v. Montgomery, 126 S.W.3d 479, 484 (Mo.App.2004). All aver-ments in the petition are assumed to be true, and the Court “liberally grant[s] all *823reasonable inferences therefrom.” Gurtz v. Gurtz, 186 S.W.3d 435, 438 (Mo.App.2006). In doing so, the Court reviews the petition in an “almost academic manner, to determine if the facts alleged meet the elements of a recognized cause of action or of a cause that might be adopted in [the] case.” Hammond v. Municipal Correction Institute, 117 S.W.3d 130, 133 (Mo.App.2003).
In this case, Janice F. Sides and Clyde Sides (“Plaintiffs”) appeal the trial court’s dismissal of their third amended petition. In that petition, Plaintiffs allege that: (1) defendants performed a lumbar laminecto-my upon Janice Sides (“Ms. Sides”), and that during said surgery, defendants infected her with E. coli bacteria; (2) Ms. Sides was unconscious during the surgery and throughout the procedure her body and the surgical site were in the exclusive control of defendants; (3) defendants have superior knowledge of the cause of the infection; and (4) infection with E. coli bacteria does not normally happen during surgery in the absence of negligence.
Because Missouri is a fact-pleading state, petitions are required to contain a “short and plain statement of the facts.” Rule 55.05. To withstand a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted, a petition must contain allegations of the ultimate facts necessary for recovery or allegations from which such ultimate facts can be inferred. ITT Commercial Finance Corp. v. Mid-America Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 379-80 (Mo. banc 1993); Sojka v. Thai, 662 S.W.2d 502, 509 (Mo. banc 1983). Negligence is an ultimate fact, not a conclusion, and res ipsa loquitur is an inference aiding in the proof of a matter; it is not a cause of action or a rule of pleading. Maybach v. Falstaff Brewing Corp., 359 Mo. 446, 222 S.W.2d 87, 92 (1949).
In Hasemeier v. Smith, 361 S.W.2d 697 (Mo. banc 1962), a medical negligence case, the defendant doctor was employed by the plaintiffs spouse to attend to and treat her during her prenatal, delivery, and postnatal periods. 361 S.W.2d at 698-99. When his wife went into labor, the plaintiff conveyed her to the hospital, where the defendant doctor informed him that the baby in his wife’s womb was dead and that, to prevent harm to the plaintiffs wife, the defendant needed to “take” the baby. Id. at 699. A general anesthetic was given to the plaintiffs wife, and a live baby was delivered. Id. The plaintiffs wife, however, never regained consciousness and died shortly after the child was born. Id.
In reviewing the sufficiency of the plaintiffs petition, this Court noted that, “ ‘[generally, the doctrine of res ipsa lo-quitur is not applicable in malpractice cases, and only in unusual circumstances may a physician or surgeon be found guilty of a failure to exercise the requisite degree of care in the absence of expert medical testimony tending to so prove.’ ” Id. at 700 (quoting Williams v. Chamberlain, 316 S.W.2d 505, 511 (Mo.1958)).1
After expressing its belief that the facts alleged in the plaintiffs petition would not allow the claim to be submitted to a jury on the theory of res ipsa loquitur, the Court nonetheless overruled the trial court’s dismissal and remanded the case *824for farther proceedings because the petition alleged sufficient facts to state a claim for general negligence. Hasemeier, 361 S.W.2d at 701-02.
Under this Court’s ruling in Hasemeier, if a plaintiff alleges negligence but cannot be expected to know the exact facts relating to the cause of the negligent act, and those facts are peculiarly within the knowledge of the defendant, then the plaintiff is not required to allege the particular cause. Id. This rule allows Plaintiffs to maintain their cause of action at this point in the process because their petition pleads the ultimate facts necessary to support an inference (based on circumstantial evidence) that defendants were negligent.
For the foregoing reason, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s opinion as it purports to hold that expert testimony may be used in a medical negligence case to support an inference of negligence based on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. Because that issue deals with how the allegations of a petition might eventually be proven, it is not related to the sufficiency of a pleading and any attempt to address it at this stage of the litigation is premature. However, because I believe plaintiffs have adequately pleaded a claim of general negligence in their third amended petition under this Court’s prior ruling in Hasemeier, I also would reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the case and remand it for further proceedings. Those further proceedings eventually may, or may not, bring the issue addressed by the majority properly before this Court for its resolution.

. The court then recognized the existence of two general lines of medical malpractice cases where it had been held that a sufficient submission of negligence could be made by the use of res ipsa loquitur. Id. Those two exceptions were: 1) cases where, during the course of an operation or procedure (especially when undergone while the patient is unconscious), a patient suffers an injury to a portion of the body not being treated; and 2) cases where a foreign object was left inside a patient after a surgical procedure had been completed. Id.