Court Opinion

ID: 9662813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:18:48.834084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:42.747685
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
The basic issue in this case is whether the legislative limits on medical malpractice liability, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4590i §§ 11.02, 11.03 (Vernon Supp.1990), are unconstitutional as applied to statutory causes of action as well as common-law actions. I believe we resolved this question by our holding in Lucas v. United States, 757 S.W.2d 687 (Tex.1988). Therefore, I am compelled to dissent.
In Lucas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit certified the following questions to us:
Whether the limitation on medical malpractice damages in Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. Ann. art. 4590i §§ 11.02 and 11.03 (Vernon Supp.1986) is consistent with the Texas Constitution, and if so, whether it applies to limit the liability of each defendant rather than the recovery of each claimant.
Lucas v. United States, 811 F.2d 270, 271 (5th Cir.1987). By answering the first question in the negative, we struck down the medical malpractice “caps” without regard to the type of action being asserted.
Today, however, the court states: “Our holding in Lucas ... did not extend to wrongful death actions.” At 842. To sup*849port this proposition, the court relies on selected language from Lucas that seemingly limits its scope to actions by injured persons as opposed to survivors.1 Ignored are different portions of the opinion indicating that the entire provision was struck down, not just its application to personal injury claims.2 While this ambiguity is unfortunate, both federal and state courts have applied Lucas to wrongful death as well as injury actions. See, e.g., Wheat v. United States, 860 F.2d 1256, 1259 (5th Cir.1988); Mercy Hospital of Laredo v. Rios, 776 S.W.2d 626, 637 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1989, writ denied). I too would read our holding more broadly.
Perhaps because of this conflict, the court also holds that under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 114, which implemented our certified question procedure, our response in Lucas was dicta insofar as it applies to wrongful death rather than common-law malpractice actions. At 844. This holding, I fear, may seriously undermine the effectiveness of our certified question procedure.
The Texas Constitution removes the case or controversy restriction on our jurisdiction so that, when both federal and state courts are willing, federal appellate courts will not have to undertake an “Erie guess” on unresolved questions of state law. Tex. Const, art. V, § 3-c. Our rule, promulgated pursuant to this constitutional authority, provides that we may answer questions certified to us “if there are involved in any proceedings before the certifying court questions of law of this state which may be determinative of the cause then pending and as to which it appears to the certifying court that there is no controlling precedent in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Texas.” Tex.R.App.P. 114(a).
The court concludes today that the first question posed in Lucas was not “determinative of the cause then pending” because it could have been framed more narrowly. I agree that the question could have been asked differently, but I strongly disagree that it had to be.3 Our answer to the question as posed was sufficient to enable the federal court to apply state law in deciding the case before it. That a narrower question would also have been determinative does not deprive us of the authority to answer the question as asked, nor does it deprive our response of precedential value. If no answer to a certified question *850can have precedential value if the question could have been framed with greater specificity or precision, our decisions in such cases will be of little use beyond the federal case in which our assistance was invoked.4
Even if the court is correct that the Lucas holding does not extend to actions for wrongful death, however, I still believe that Lucas controls this ease. In striking down the caps in common-law causes of action, we of necessity also struck them down in statutory proceedings unless the statute is severable.
In embarking upon a severability analysis, the primary focus must be on the intention of the legislature. See N. Sanger, Sutherland Statutory Construction § 44.03 (Sands 4th ed. 1986 rev.). Indeed, it is the “duty of a court to ascertain and give effect to legislative intent concerning severability of a statute.” Tex.Gov’t.Code Ann. § 312.013 (Vernon 1988). “The test for severability in the absence of an express severability clause is one of legislative intent.” The Association of Texas Professional Educators v. The State Commissioner of Education, 788 S.W.2d 827, 830 (Tex.1990). Conversely, the existence of a severability clause is an aid to finding such a legislative intent. It is not, however, conclusive. As Justice Brandeis said in Dorchy v. State of Kansas, 264 U.S. 286, 290, 44 S.Ct. 323, 324-25, 68 L.Ed. 686 (1924), a savings clause provides a rule of construction which may aid in determining legislative intent, but “it is an aid merely; not an inexorable command.”
In this instance, I find the language of the severability clause singularly unhelpful. While it provides that the unconstitutionality of one “application” of a provision does not affect other “applications” thereof, it also provides that the “effect” of striking down a provision shall be confined “to the clause, sentence, subsection, section, article or provision” held invalid.5 If the legislature had used “application” in both portions of the clause, its intent would probably be clear. As it is, however, I find neither an aid nor a command in this confusing language.
The inquiry, therefore, is whether “the invalid part is so intermingled with all parts of the act as to make it impossible to separate them, and so preclude the presumption that the Legislature would have passed the act anyhow.” Sharber v. Florence, 131 Tex. 341, 345, 115 S.W.2d 604, 606 (1938). See also, Western Union Telegraph Co. v. State, 62 Tex. 630, 634 (1884). While the issue is close, I cannot conclude that in the absence of any limitation on actions for personal injury, the legislature nonetheless would have provided a ceiling on claims for wrongful death.
Two separate factors suggest that the legislature never intended for section 11.02 to be severable. First, the internal “sever-ability clause” in section 11.03 indicates that the legislature never contemplated the *851severance of different applications of the damages cap in section 11.02. The wording and legislative history of section 11.03 suggest that the legislature only intended it to be severable from the entirety of the section 11.02(a) limitations, as opposed to a particular application thereof:
Sec. 11.03. In the event that Section 11.02(a) of this subchapter is stricken from this subchapter or is otherwise invalidated by a method other than through legislative means, the following shall become effective: ....
Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4590i, § 11.03 (Vernon Supp.1990). This language was included after the legislature approved Representative Powers’ proposed amendment to H.B. 1048. Representative Powers explained the amendment to the House:
If the rest of this section, in other words, the limit or cap of $500,000 were to be declared unconstitutional or invalid for any reason by a court, [by] some other means [other] than the legislature, then just pain and suffering limitations of $150,000 would stay in the Bill, except in a case of disfigurement.
Representative Henderson, speaking against the amendment, described it in similar terms:
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. Henderson, there is, already, an internal cap under the Bill, is there not? Is there not a provision that if the Court finds the $500,000 cap which the study commission did not recommend, but which we placed in there for the physicians, is found to be unconstitutional, we would revert to $150,000 pain and suffering cap, do we not?
REP. HENDERSON: That’s correct, we provide that as a contingent.
Transcription of Tapes of Formal Meeting of House Committee on State Affairs, March 14, 1977, at 183.
Thus, there is no indication of a legislative intent to sever the liability caps in section 11.02 into distinct applications. The legislature only contemplated that the $500,000 cap might be struck down, in which case only the $150,000 pain and suffering cap in section 11.03 would remain.
Second, in 1977, high damage awards in common-law personal injury cases were of much greater concern to the legislature than awards in wrongful death cases. There is nothing in the findings of the Keeton Commission Report,6 upon which the Act was based, to suggest that the legislature would or should impose damages limitations in wrongful death cases alone. Although the Keeton Commission recommended only a cap on damages recoverable for pain and suffering, it cited large recoveries in personal injury cases as a factor contributing to the escalating health insurance costs in Texas in the 1970s. The Commission found it “apparent that substantial reductions in settlements and judgments in those cases involving severe injuries will have a significant impact on insurance costs and the pure premium rate.” Keeton Commission Report, at 6.
Further, when the legislature enacted the Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act in 1977, damages recoverable under the Wrongful Death Act were very limited in comparison to those recoverable in common-law personal injury actions. Prior to our decision in Sanchez v. Schindler, 651 S.W.2d 249 (Tex.1983), damages recoverable under the Wrongful Death Act were limited by the pecuniary loss rule. See March v. Walker, 48 Tex. 372, 375 *852(1877). The large recoveries achieved in common-law personal injury cases in the 1970s, therefore, were the primary focus of the legislature’s concerns. Indeed, the initial draft of the Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act provided for a damages cap of $500,000 only in personal injury cases and for no cap in wrongful death cases.7
Undoubtedly, the legislature could have enacted a separate cap for wrongful death actions, and such a cap would not have violated the open courts provision of our constitution. See Moreno v. Sterling Drug, 787 S.W.2d 348, 355-57 (Tex.1990). The language of sections 11.02 and 11.03, and the circumstances surrounding their passage, however, demonstrate that the legislature did not intend for section 11.02 to be severable and would not, in 1977, have passed a liability cap on wrongful death claims without a cap on personal injury claims.
As the statutory provisions are not sev-erable, our holding in Lucas, even if limited to common-law actions, compels a similar result in the case at bar. While I strongly and extensively disagreed with Lucas, see 757 S.W.2d at 702-21 (Phillips, C.J., dissenting), I would not disturb so recent a constitutional decision by our court. I am also unwilling, as I believe the court has done, to restrict the scope of the decision by imposing a retroactive qualification upon our answer to the certified question.
Before it applied the Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act, the court of appeals found sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict, subject to suggested common-law remittiturs. The petitioners each filed remittiturs in the suggested amounts. I agree that the court of appeals applied the correct standard in deriving its suggested common-law remittiturs. I would therefore affirm the judgment of the court of appeals in part and reverse it in part, rendering judgment that Alton Rose and Frances Rose each recover $815,000 from Doctors Hospital, less remittiturs of $230,000 and $315,000, respectively, and that Lisa Rose recover $2,825,000 from Doctors Hospital, less a remittitur of $500,-000 plus interst and costs.

. The court in Lucas said: “[W]e ... conclude that the liability limits ... are unconstitutional as applied to catastrophically damaged malpractice victims seeking a 'remedy by due course of law.’” 757 S.W.2d at 690. The Court further stated: "Texas courts have long recognized that victims of medical negligence have a well-defined common law cause of action to sue for injuries negligently inflicted upon them.” Id. Moreover, the court said: “In the context of persons catastrophically injured by medical negligence, we believe it is unreasonable and arbitrary to limit their recovery in a speculative experiment to determine whether liability insurance rates will decrease.” Id. at 691. Finally, the court held: “[W]e hold it is unreasonable and arbitrary for the legislature to conclude that arbitrary damage caps, applicable to all claimants no matter how seriously injured, will help assure a rational relationship between actual damages and amounts awarded.” Id.

. At the beginning of its opinion, the court stated the certified questions and answered unequivocally "that the damages limitations contained in Sections 11.02 and 11.03 of article 4590i violate article I, § 13 of the Texas Constitution.” 757 S.W.2d at 687. Likewise, at the end of its opinion, the court held: "[0]ur answer to the certified question is that the limitation on medical malpractice damages in Tex. Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4590i, §§ 11.02 and 11.03, is inconsistent with and violative of article I, section 13, of the Texas Constitution.” Id. at 692.

.I also question whether this court, at this late date, has any right to inquire whether the question posed by the Fifth Circuit in Lucas was appropriate. As we said in Moreno v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 787 S.W.2d 348 (Tex.1990), the certified question process “is a very limited procedural device; we answer only the questions certified and nothing more.” Id. at 349. We also noted that "the whole case is not before this court as it would be in an ordinary appeal." Id. While this court has an obligation to ensure that the certified question is asked in good faith and is capable of resolution as a matter of law, we must ordinarily rely on the expertise of the certifying court to frame correctly the precise issue for our determination.

. The problem with Lucas, if any, did not arise from the way the Fifth Circuit framed the question, but from the fact that we answered it without reservation or qualification. Before we handed down Lucas, on May 11, 1988, this court had already heard oral arguments for the first time in this case. The arguments and briefs of the parties, as supplemented by post-submission briefs, dealt extensively with the constitutional significance of whether a cause of action is legislatively or judicially created. If we found this distinction arguably persuasive, we should have raised it in our various Lucas opinions. Instead, we answered the question without restriction, and that answer controls the case at bar unless we choose to modify Lucas.

. The complete severability clause is as follows: If any provision of this statute or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid or unconstitutional, such invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this statute which can be given effect without the invalid clause, sentence, subsection, section, article, or provision or application, and shall not affect, impair, invalidate, or nullify the remainder of this Act, but the effect thereof shall be confined to the clause, sentence, subsection, section, article or provision of the Act so adjudged to be invalid or unconstitutional and to this end the above are declared to be severable.
Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4590i note, Acts 1977, ch. 817, § 41.04 (Vernon Supp.1990).

. In 1975, the 64th Legislature created the Medical Professional Liability Study Commission, known as "the Keeton Commission" in reference to its chairman, W. Page Keeton. See Note following Tex.Ins.Code, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 21.49-3 (Vernon 1981). For twenty-two months the Commission studied the causes of the alleged "medical malpractice crisis." It made recommendations to the 65th Legislature in its report entitled "Final Report of the Texas Medical Professional Liability Study Commission to the 65th Texas Legislature.” In enacting the Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act in 1977, the legislature explicitly adopted the findings of this commission. See Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 4590, § 1.02(13) (Vernon Supp.1990).

. Representative Tom Uher offered the amendment to House Bill 1048 which applied the caps to both injury and death cases. The amendment was approved by the House and was incorporated into the Act. See Transcription of Tapes of Formal Meeting of House Committee on State Affairs, March 14, 1977, at 35, 36, 205.