Court Opinion

ID: 9778693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:16:26.597004+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:12.640483
License: Public Domain

Biles, J.,
dissenting: In my view, reinstating Berry’s negligence action is an injustice to these defendants and the voluntary rehabilitation programs with which they contract. If plaintiff truly felt aggrieved by the rehabilitation program procedures offered by the Kansas State Board of Nursing, she had significant due process rights available administratively to protect her nursing license from erroneous testing results. Her decisions to abandon those due process rights and quit the Board’s rehabilitation program are what resulted in the loss of her nursing license. This underscores that her claimed injuries are entirely self-inflicted and not the result of any flaws in the Board’s testing practices. If such flaws existed, there already were procedures in place to remedy them.
*924I agree with Judge Buser’s dissent in Berry v. Nat’l Medical Services, Inc., 41 Kan. App. 2d 612, 623-27, 205 P.3d 945 (2009). The majority’s decision opens a door for administrative licensees to select tort actions against third-party contractors instead of pursuing their due process rights through established licensing procedures. In the end, the result may make it more difficult for licensing agencies to offer rehabilitation alternatives for impairments such as substance abuse.