Court Opinion

ID: 9678366
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:18:03.10528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:03.950544
License: Public Domain

ENOCH, Justice,
dissenting.
The claim against R.K. is that of medical negligence. The claim against Methodist Hospital is that of negligent entrustment, that is to say, the Hospital was negligent in permitting R.K. to be in a position to render the medical services at issue. On the state of these pleadings and requiring nothing more, the Court gives to the plaintiffs the keys to R.K’s most personal and intimate physical and psychological history. Although carefully crafted, the Court’s opinion simply renders the privilege established by rule 509 of the Texas Rules of Civil Evidence meaningless. I respectfully dissent.
I do not disagree with the Court’s analysis of rule 509 in parts II and III of its opinion.1 The rule clearly requires that the party seeking the medical records must be “rely[ing] upon the [medical] condition as a part of the party’s claim_” Tex.R.Civ.Evid. 509(d) (emphasis added). And, I agree that to give meaning to rule 509, medical information is discoverable only if it concerns a condition that is “of legal consequence to a party’s claim or defense.” 887 S.W.2d at 842. I depart from the Court’s opinion because the Court throws reliance away with merely a footnote asserting that “[w]hether a condition is a part of a claim or defense should be determined on the face of the pleadings.... ” 887 S.W.2d at 843. It studies not whether what is pleaded demonstrates any reliance upon R.K.’s condition. What the plaintiffs have pleaded, in fact, does not rely upon R.K.’s condition.
As the Court notes, R.K. was only one of several medical personnel who provided prenatal and birthing services to Mrs. Cadena. Regarding R.K., who was a resident medical school graduate under the supervision of a licensed physician, the Cadenas allege that during the prenatal examinations he, along with others, failed to diagnose that Mrs. *845Cadena was carrying twins.2 The Cadenas farther allege that this failure fell below the standard of reasonable medical care.
As this Court states, a party “cannot truly be said to ‘rely5 upon a patient’s condition as a legal matter, unless some consequence flows from the existence or non-existence of the condition.” 887 S.W.2d 848. There is no question that R.K.’s liability is predicated on whether his conduct fell below that standard which a medical practitioner would have adhered to under the same or similar circumstances. See Hood v. Phillips, 554 S.W.2d 160, 165 (Tex.1977). What is of legal consequence is R.K.’s conduct. Yet, neither plaintiffs’ pleadings nor this Court articulate how R.K.’s physical or mental condition relates to his conduct in this case. In short, in this negligence case, the legal consequence stems from whether R.K. was negligent, not why R.K. was negligent.
While I agree that Dossey v. Salazar, 808 S.W.2d 146 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, orig. proceeding), incorrectly concludes that rule 509 only encompasses the “offensive use” doctrine regarding the waiver of pa-tienVphysician privileges, it is too hastily dismissed by the Court. 887 S.W.2d at 841. As in the present case, the court of appeals in Dossey was asked to determine whether the bare allegation that the defendant had a physical or mental impairment should open his treatment records to perusal by the plaintiffs. In Dossey, the defendant was involved in a car/motorcycle accident. Because the undisputed evidence showed that he had been drinking alcohol on the date of the accident, the plaintiffs asserted they had the right to review his psychiatric treatment records. In upholding the defendant’s assertion of privilege, the court of appeals stated:
... the real parties in interest have not placed [defendant’s] mental condition at issue by their ... allegation that ‘evidence of habitual intoxication’ may be found in the records.
If a plaintiff could gain access to a defendant’s mental health information merely by making a claim regarding the condition, patients would be deterred from ever seeking such emotional guidance, and this violates the very nature of psychological/psychiatric treatment which requires free and complete disclosure of all thoughts and feelings of the patient. (Citations omitted).
Dossey at 148 (emphasis added).3
In this case, the Cadenas merely assert that R.K. had a condition. Nothing in the record before this Court demonstrates that their claim of medical negligence against R.K. relies in any legal sense upon his condition.
Contrary to this Courts’ paraphrase of and referencing to an out-of-context excerpt in plaintiffs’ pleadings, the only place in the pleadings where R.K’s mental and physical condition is even mentioned is with respect to what the hospital knew or should have known. Because the Court mischaraeterizes plaintiffs’ pleadings it misses a critical point. Under a negligent entrustment theory, the plaintiff must allege and prove that the actor who was entrusted was negligent. Schneider v. Esperanza Transmission Co., 744 S.W.2d 595, 596 (Tex.1987); Williams v. Steves Indus., Inc., 699 S.W.2d 570, 571 (Tex.1985). As discussed above, the plaintiffs’ claim against R.K. does not, as a matter of legal consequence, rely upon his medical condition. Consequently, plaintiffs’ negligent entrustment theory against the hospital, as regards R.K., cannot, as a matter of legal consequence, rely upon R.K’s condition. This is so because, without articulating how R.K.’s condition relates to conduct which fell below the standard of reasonable medical care, *846what the hospital knew or should have known about his medical condition is immaterial. Schneider, 744 S.W.2d at 596 (the essence of negligent entrustment is awareness by the entrustor of the propensity of the actor to commit the act upon which the negligence claim is based).
The Court errs in its treatment of rule 509. Because I do not agree that R.K’s medical records are discoverable in this ease, I would grant a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to vacate its order in its entirety. Therefore, I dissent.

. Also, I agree with the Court’s disposition of R.K.’s claim of constitutional protection under part IV of the Court’s opinion.

. The record is unclear whether R.K. was attending Mrs. Cadena at the time of the birth. However, R.K. has not been sued for any action he took or failed to take at the time of the birth.

. The Cadenas support their request for R.K.’s medical records by arguing that they are “developing evidence to prove (1) Dr. [K.’s] disabilities, unfitness, and incompetence ...; and (2) the knowledge of the hospital.”