Professional Negligence Law Reporter

An Oregon appellate court held that a medical center and physician may be liable to a mother who was injured when her son stabbed her after his release from a hospital ER.

N.H. suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and severe intellectual disabilities. When he began hearing voices, his mother, Valerie Maltais, became concerned. Fearing that he would harm himself and his family, Maltais took N.H. to the PeaceHealth ER, where staff interviewed and released him.

His psychiatrist later called an intake worker at the ER and reported that N.H. wanted to be admitted and was dangerous to himself and others. Although staff allegedly agreed to admit N.H., when he arrived they failed to do so. N.H. subsequently stabbed Maltais, puncturing her lung.

Maltais and her husband sued Peacehealth and a physician, alleging the defendants had negligently failed to admit N.H. The trial court dismissed the complaint.

Reversing, the appellate court found that the relationship between a professional and third parties who are not their clients may support the third parties’ negligence claim. The court said such a determination is made on a case-by-case basis. Here, the court found, the facts the plaintiffs alleged, if proved, show that the parties’ relationship fell within the scope of a professional undertaking that gives rise to legal protection. Such an undertaking could include Maltais’s role as N.H.’s primary caretaker and the person endangered by his condition, the court found, adding that PeaceHealth allegedly relied on Maltais to ensure N.H. received appropriate care.
The court also found that the allegations also support an inference that the defendants should have been aware of Maltais’s relationship to N.H. and the danger he posed to her safety. Moreover, the court said, a reasonable fact finder could conclude that the defendants did not mitigate the risk of physical harm from N.H. by restraining or admitting him and that the plaintiffs’ alleged harm resulted from the defendants’ alleged omissions.

Consequently, the court remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

Citation: Maltais v. PeaceHealth, 2023 WL 3987454 (Or. Ct. App. June 14, 2023).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ member Gregory Kafoury, Portland, Ore.