Loaisiga v. Cerda

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court addressed whether claims alleging that a physician sexually assaulted patients during medical examinations were health care liability claims subject to the Texas Medical Liability Act's expert-report requirements. The Court held that claims based on facts implicating a physician's conduct during patient care are presumptively health care liability claims, although the presumption may be rebutted when the alleged conduct is wholly unrelated to health care services. The Court also held that the expert reports served in this case were inadequate and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The Texas Medical Liability Act creates a rebuttable presumption that a claim against a physician or health care provider based on facts implicating the defendant's conduct during the patient's care, treatment, or confinement is a health care liability claim subject to the Act's expert-report requirements.
2. A claim against a medical or health care provider for assault is not a health care liability claim if the record conclusively shows that there is no complaint about any act related to medical or health care services other than the alleged offensive contact, the contact was not pursuant to actual or implied consent, and the only possible relationship between the contact and health care was the setting in which the act occurred.
3. The record did not conclusively establish that the alleged touching could not have been part of the examinations, so the plaintiffs did not rebut the presumptive application of the expert-report requirements.
4. The reports met the minimum Scoresby threshold because they were prepared by a physician who opined that the claims had merit and implicated the defendants' conduct, but they were deficient because the expert relied only on the pleadings and did not consider matters beyond them, including relevant medical records or clinical context.
5. When a plaintiff names a physician or health care provider as a defendant and seeks relief based on facts that possibly implicate the Texas Medical Liability Act, the expert-report requirement applies even if the pleadings do not separately articulate a theory of liability against that defendant.

Questions Presented

1. Whether claims alleging that a physician assaulted patients by exceeding the proper scope of physical examinations are presumptively health care liability claims subject to the Texas Medical Liability Act's expert-report requirements.
2. What showing is required to rebut the presumption that claims against a physician or health care provider based on conduct during patient care, treatment, or confinement are health care liability claims.
3. Whether the expert reports served by the plaintiffs constituted adequate reports under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 74.351.
4. Whether the expert-report requirements applied to the plaintiffs' claims against the physician's professional association when the association was named as a defendant and judgment was sought against it but the pleadings did not separately allege facts against it.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded