Court Opinion

ID: 9535033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:44:52.136418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:09.596290
License: Public Domain

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE HASWELL,
dissenting:
I dissent. In my view the Fergus County District Court properly denied the appellants’ motion to change venue from Fergus County to Yellowstone County.
The venue statute at issue, Section 25-2-102, MCA, provides that an alleged tort may be tried in the county where the tort was committed. A tort consists of a breach of duty and damages proximately caused by the breach. Joseph v. Hustad Corporation (1969), 153 Mont. 121, 454 P.2d 916. In other words, before a tort can be committed there must be damage.
The tort in the present case was not committed until the damage occurred in Fergus County. Therefore, the alleged tort or malpractice was committed in Fergus County and *319venue was proper in that jurisdiction.
The majority rejects the reasoning set forth above and asserts that choice of forum should not be based “on the fortuitous fact that the patient happened to be in a particular county when he or she first noticed the ill effects” of the alleged malpractice.
I suggest that suffering the ill effects of negligent health care is never a fortuitous event. There is little chance that the policies of our venue statutes will be disserved by allowing such actions to proceed where the patient or victim suffered damage or injury as the result of the alleged negligent conduct.
The physician in the present case allegedly owed the patient a duty of care that extended to the patient’s home in Fergus County. This duty or obligation was breached by an alleged failure to monitor the patient’s condition in Fergus County. This allegation of tortious conduct, which appears on the face of the plaintiff’s complaint, was sufficient in itself to keep venue in Fergus County. See Hopkins v. Scottie Homes, Inc. (1979), 180 Mont. 498, 591 P.2d 230. The occasion of damages in this case was clearly in Fergus County. The majority has neatly sidestepped our recent decision of Whalen v. Snell (1983), [205 Mont. 299,] 667 P.2d 436, 40 St. Rep. 1283,, 667 P.2d 436, 40 St.Rep. 1283. In Whalen we held that a tort is committed where there is a concurrence of breach of obligation and the occasion of damages. Since the plaintiff’s complaint alleges both an obligation breached and damages suffered within Fergus County, venue was proper there.