Lopez v. Dayton CA1/1 ( 2024 )


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  • Filed 5/23/24 Lopez v. Dayton CA1/1
    NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
    California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not
    certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been
    certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
    IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
    FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT
    DIVISION ONE
    RICARDO LOPEZ,
    Plaintiff and Appellant,
    v.                                                      A168458
    MICHAEL DAYTON, et al.,
    (Contra Costa County
    Defendants and Respondents.
    Super. Ct. No. C21-00204)
    Plaintiff Ricardo Lopez appeals an order granting summary judgment
    to defendants Michael Dayton and American Medical Response West (AMR)
    on the grounds that the suit is barred by the one-year statute of limitations of
    the Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5 as a matter of law.1 We affirm.
    I.
    INTRODUCTION
    Lopez alleges he was injured on April 23, 2019, when his vehicle was
    struck by an ambulance operated by Dayton, a certified EMT and employee of
    AMR. Lopez filed his complaint on January 28, 2021, alleging motor vehicle
    negligence. He appeals from summary judgment in favor of defendants based
    1    All statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure unless
    otherwise stated.
    on the special limitations period applicable to actions for professional
    negligence by health care providers under the Medical Injury Compensation
    Reform Act (MICRA). (§ 340.5.)
    This appeal turns on whether MICRA’s limitations period applies when
    a third party in a separate vehicle is injured in a collision with an ambulance
    transporting a patient to a hospital. The trial court determined it did,
    reasoning that Lopez’s claim arose from Dayton’s acts performed while
    providing professional medical services. We agree.
    II.
    FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
    The basic facts are undisputed. In April 2019, Dayton and a fellow
    EMT responded to a 911 call and loaded a patient into an ambulance to
    transport her to a hospital. Dayton drove the ambulance and, in doing so,
    was acting in the course and scope of his employment with AMR. Dayton did
    not use the ambulance’s siren or emergency lights. As Dayton made a right-
    hand turn, there was a collision with Lopez, who was making a left hand turn
    from the other direction.
    Almost two years later, Lopez filed an action against both AMR and
    Dayton, asserting a single cause of action for “motor vehicle” negligence.
    Lopez alleged the defendants’ acts were negligent and the proximate cause of
    his injuries.
    Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds that
    the alleged negligence constituted “professional negligence” within the
    meaning of MICRA, and thus MICRA’s one-year statute of limitations barred
    the suit. Defendants also claimed immunity from liability pursuant to the
    EMS Act, California Health & Safety Code section 1792, et seq.
    2
    The trial court agreed that MICRA’s one year statute of limitations
    applied and granted the motion. The court concluded that because Dayton
    was transporting a patient at the time of the accident, he was rendering
    professional services. Dayton’s alleged negligent provision of those services
    caused Lopez’s injury, and thus the court held MICRA applied to Lopez’s
    claim. It did not reach defendants’ immunity argument. Lopez appealed.
    III.
    DISCUSSION
    A.    Legal Standards
    The grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo, viewing the
    evidence in the light most favorable to the losing party. (Lopez v. American
    Medical Response West (2023) 
    89 Cal.App.5th 336
    , 342 (Lopez).) “When the
    decisive facts are undisputed, we are confronted with a question of law and
    are not bound by the findings of the trial court.” (Ghirardo v. Antonioli
    (1994) 
    8 Cal.4th 791
    , 799.) Likewise, we independently review issues of
    statutory construction. (Canister v. Emergency Ambulance Service, Inc.
    (2008) 
    160 Cal.App.4th 388
    , 394 (Canister).) Where clear and unambiguous,
    the plain meaning of statutory language governs. (Id. at pp. 399–400.)
    B.    MICRA’s Statute of Limitations Bars Lopez’s Claim
    Personal injury claims for negligence usually have a two-year statute of
    limitations. (§ 335.1.) But MICRA imposes a one-year limitations period for
    claims against healthcare providers based on “professional negligence.”
    (§ 340.5.) Finding MICRA applicable, the trial court granted summary
    judgment.
    Lopez contends the court erred because MICRA does not apply to
    claims involving “ ‘generally applicable nonprofessional obligations.’ ” In his
    view, defendants breached their general duty of care to him as a member of
    the public. He asserts that he could not have sued under a theory of
    3
    professional negligence because he was neither defendants’ patient nor an
    occupant in the ambulance and because his claim does not depend on proof of
    defendants’ violation of any professional obligation. As we shall discuss,
    however, such facts are extraneous to determining whether MICRA’s
    limitation period applies to a personal injury claim.
    MICRA defines “professional negligence” as “a negligent act or omission
    to act by a health care provider in the rendering of professional services,
    which act or omission is the proximate cause of injury or wrongful death,
    provided that such services are within the scope of services for which the
    provider is licensed . . . .” (§ 340.5, subd. (2).) Lopez does not contest that
    EMTs are healthcare providers, that the collision was the proximate cause of
    Lopez’s injuries, or that that Dayton was a licensed EMT acting in the course
    and scope of his employment at the time of the accident.
    We are therefore left to decide whether a negligent act by a health care
    provider in transporting a patient to the hospital via ambulance and causing
    a third party’s injury is “professional negligence” under section 340.5. We
    conclude it is.
    1. Personal Injury Claims Arising From Provision Of Medical
    Care To Patients Constitute “Professional Negligence”
    Section 340.5 reflects the codification of a judicially created limitations
    period for medical malpractice claims in which discovery of the injury was
    delayed. (Flores v. Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (2016)
    
    63 Cal.4th 75
    , 80–81 (Flores).) MICRA later amended section 340.5 to its
    present version. (Stats.1975, (1975-1976 2d Ex. Sess.) ch.1, § 25 (pp. 3969–
    3970), ch.2 § 1.192 (pp. 3991–3992); Flores, 
    supra,
     63 Cal.4th at p. 81.)
    Specifically, MICRA “expanded the coverage of the provision to
    include . . . actions against ‘ “[h]ealth care provider[s]” ’ ” and it “amended the
    description of covered claims, stating that the special limitations period
    4
    applies to ‘an action for injury or death against a health care provider based
    upon such person’s alleged professional negligence.’ ” (Flores, supra,
    63 Cal.4th at p. 81.)
    In Flores, the Supreme Court addressed the meaning of “rendering of
    professional services” under MICRA’s definition of professional negligence.
    (Id. at p. 84.) There, a doctor ordered that the rails on a hospital patient’s
    bed to be raised, but the bedrail’s latch broke causing the patient to fall and
    injure herself. (Id. at p. 79.) The patient sued for negligence, and the
    question before the court was whether the hospital’s duty to the patient was
    that of a medical provider or merely a duty owed to the general public. (Id. at
    pp. 79–80.) The court explained that “an injury resulting from a hospital’s
    breach of a generally applicable obligation to maintain its equipment and
    premises in a safe condition does not fall within section 340.5.” (Id. at p. 88.)
    Nonetheless, it found MICRA applied. (Id. at p. 89.) It concluded the
    patient’s injury resulted from negligence in the provision of professional
    services because it flowed from “the doctor’s order, which was based on a
    medical assessment of her condition, that the rails on her bed be raised.” (Id.
    at p. 89.)
    In reaching this understanding of “professional services,” Flores relied
    on precedent concerning a similarly worded statute regarding “ ‘action[s]
    against an attorney for a wrongful act . . . arising in the performance of
    professional services.’ ” (Lee v. Hanley (2015) 
    61 Cal.4th 1225
    , 1229 (Lee).)
    Unlike section 340.5, the statute at issue in Lee did not turn on, or define,
    “professional negligence”; but Lee confronted a situation where professional
    obligations “overlap[ped] with obligations that all persons subject to
    California’s laws have.” (Id. at p. 1238; see Flores, 
    supra,
     63 Cal.4th at
    pp. 87–88.) Construing a “professional obligation” as one that an “attorney
    5
    has by virtue of being an attorney,” Lee held the relevant provision’s “time
    bar applies to claims whose merits necessarily depend on proof that an
    attorney violated a professional obligation in the course of providing
    professional services.” (Lee, at pp. 1236–1237.)
    Following similar logic, Flores held section 340.5 “applies only to
    actions alleging injury suffered as a result of negligence in rendering the
    professional services that hospitals and others provide by virtue of being
    health care professionals.” (Flores, supra, 63 Cal.4th at p. 88.) Thus, the
    Supreme Court circumscribed “professional obligations” and “professional
    services” to those obligations owed and services provided “by virtue of being”
    attorneys and health care providers, respectively. Flores succinctly defined
    the latter as “the provision of medical care to patients.” (Ibid.)
    2. Section 340.5 Extends to Claims By Non-Patients
    Flores did not consider whether MICRA applies where the plaintiff was
    injured as a result of professional services but was not the recipient of those
    services. (See Gutierrez v. Tostado (2023) 
    97 Cal.App.5th 786
    , 792–793,
    review granted Mar.20, 2024, No. S238128 (Gutierrez).)
    But eight years earlier, the Second District, Division Eight, applied
    MICRA’s provisions where a nonpatient claimed the defendants negligently
    failed to advise him to wear a seatbelt in an ambulance transporting a
    patient. (Canister, 
    supra,
     160 Cal.App.4th at p. 392.)2 Canister determined
    “as a matter of law” that “transporting patients and driving or operating an
    ambulance” are professional services of a licensed EMT under MICRA
    because they are “[a]n integral part of the duties of an EMT.” (Id. at p. 407.)
    2     The pertinent MICRA provision was an exception to the collateral
    source rule in medical negligence cases. (Canister, supra, 160 Cal.App.4th at
    p. 408.) MICRA’s limitations period was not at issue in Canister.
    6
    In that case, no professional services were provided to the plaintiff, but the
    court held that MICRA extends “ ‘to any foreseeable injured
    party . . . provided the injuries alleged arose out of professional negligence.’ ”
    (Ibid.) It further held “it [was] foreseeable as a matter of law that a
    [passenger] accompanying [a patient] in an ambulance might be injured in
    the operation of the ambulance.” (Id. at pp. 407–408.)
    Last year, Division Five of this district extended that logic to the
    applicability of MICRA’s limitations period. (Lopez, supra, 89 Cal.App.5th at
    p. 347 [applying section 340.5 to ambulance patient’s and accompanying
    passenger’s negligence claims “because their alleged injuries occurred while
    the EMT’s were rendering professional services by transporting plaintiffs in
    an ambulance”] (Lopez).) Relying on both Flores and Canister, Lopez found
    an EMT’s transportation of a patient constituted the “provision of medical
    care” because the alleged negligence in the use of equipment—the
    ambulance—was “ ‘integrally related to her medical diagnosis and
    treatment.’ ” (Id. at p. 347, quoting Flores, 
    supra,
     63 Cal.4th at p. 89.)
    Unlike Canister, however, Lopez did not emphasize the foreseeability of the
    injury in extending section 340.5’s applicability to a third party’s claim.
    Instead, Lopez determined that, “under the principles discussed in Flores,
    MICRA’s statute of limitations applie[d] to plaintiffs’ claims because their
    alleged injuries occurred while the EMT’s were rendering professional
    services by transporting plaintiffs in an ambulance.” (Id. at p. 347.)
    Even more recently, the Sixth District applied MICRA’s statute of
    limitations to a personal injury action brought against an EMT by another
    motorist. (Gutierrez, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at p. 789.) Finding Canister and
    Lopez on point, the court held that “transporting a patient in an ambulance
    qualifies as the provision of medical care, and that the act of driving the
    7
    ambulance is an integral part of that care.” (Gutierrez, at p. 793.) It
    therefore “conclude[d] that MICRA is not limited to suits by patients or to
    recipients of medical services as long as the plaintiff is injured due to
    negligence in the rendering of professional services and his injuries were
    foreseeable.” (Id. at p. 794.)
    In sum, courts broadly construe “professional negligence” to claims
    brought by nonpatients. The limiting principle—that the proximate cause of
    the plaintiff’s injury be the provision of medical care—is unambiguous.
    (§ 340.5, subd. (2).) Further, numerous cases have found that transporting a
    patient via ambulance is medical care. (E.g., Canister, 
    supra,
    160 Cal.App.4th at p. 407; see also T.L. v. City Ambulance of Eureka, Inc.
    (2022) 
    83 Cal.App.5th 864
    , 879.)
    3. The Provision of Medical Care Proximately Caused Lopez’s
    Injury
    As discussed above, the weight of authority recognizes transporting a
    patient via ambulance as medical care.
    Lopez suggests Flores’ analytical approach and post-Flores case law
    calls that conclusion into question. This argument was rejected in Lopez,
    supra, 89 Cal.App.5th at p. 346 and Gutierrez, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at
    p. 795, and it fails here for the same reason. In short, no authority undercuts
    the conclusion that transporting a patient to a hospital in an ambulance is
    medical care because it is integrally related to medical treatment. (Cf.
    Aldana v. Stillwagon (2016) 
    2 Cal.App.5th 1
    , 8 [distinguishing instance
    where a paramedic supervisor was not transporting patient in an ambulance,
    but driving to the scene of an emergency in a truck]; Johnson v. Open Door
    Community Health Centers (2017) 
    15 Cal.App.5th 153
    , 162 [Canister’s
    “outcome is arguably correct” under Flores because “the EMTs who allegedly
    8
    operated an ambulance without due care were rendering professional services
    at the time”].)3
    Lopez depicts a parade of horribles unleashed by this result. Such
    concerns are unfounded. Under Flores’ framework, misconduct by medical
    providers will not be transformed into professional negligence merely because
    it occurs contemporaneously with the provision of medical care. Professional
    negligence remains limited to “only that negligent conduct engaged in for the
    purpose of (or the purported purpose of) delivering health care to a patient.”
    (So v. Shin (2013) 
    212 Cal.App.4th 652
    , 666–667 [finding section 340.5 does
    not apply where doctor “acted for her own benefit . . . not for the benefit of her
    patient”].) Here, Lopez does not question Dayton’s purported intent to
    transport the patient to the hospital. (See id. at p. 667 [noting Canister did
    not question the “legitimate medical reason” for the negligent act].)
    Lopez also seeks to escape application of MICRA’s limitations period on
    foreseeability grounds. He argues “it was not foreseeable that Dayton’s
    negligence in providing medical care to his patient would cause injury to
    Lopez because Dayton’s provision of services to his patient did not cause the
    collision with Lopez.” But this reflects a misunderstanding of Dayton’s
    professional services—transportation. It is “entirely foreseeable” that the
    “provision of ambulance services” may cause collisions “where third parties
    are injured.” (Gutierrez, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at p. 794.)
    In his reply briefing, Lopez notes the Gutierrez dissent lodged a related
    criticism, asserting that the result was “unpredictable and surprising” and
    departed from the approach espoused in Lee. (Id. at p. 796 (dis. opn. of
    3     We emphasize that Flores rejected a narrow rule limiting professional
    services to tasks requiring “ ‘a particularized degree of medical skill.’ ”
    (Flores, supra, 63 Cal.4th at pp. 84–85.)
    9
    Bromberg, J.).) The dissent insisted section 340.5 should “appl[y] only if a
    plaintiff asserts a claim requiring proof that a health care provider’s
    professional obligation has been violated” because “the plaintiff will always
    know if his or her claim is based upon professional negligence and there will
    no surprise or unfairness.” (Id. at p. 797.)4 It found this approach was in
    accord with the holding in Lee on which Flores relied. (Gutierrez, at p. 797.)
    But while Flores found Lee “instructive,” it did not hold that
    section 340.5 only applies to claims “whose merits necessarily depend on
    proof” that a health care provider violated a professional obligation while
    rendering professional services. (Compare Lee, at pp. 1236–1237 with Flores,
    supra, 63 Cal.4th at p. 88.) As discussed above, Flores looked to Lee in
    construing “professional services” as those “provide[d] by virtue of being
    health care professionals.” (Flores, at p. 88.) In the context of lawyers, Lee
    determined the delineation between professional and general obligations
    could only be discerned by the proof required to show the alleged violation of
    an obligation. (Lee, supra, 61 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1236–1237.) But in the
    health care context, professional services are readily identified as those
    necessary for the provision of medical care. (Flores, at p. 88; So v. Shin,
    
    supra,
     212 Cal.App.4th at pp. 666–667.).
    4      We note that perceived “unfairness” in applying the limitations period
    is not a valid reason to ignore the statute’s plain text. (See Sanford v.
    Garamendi (1991) 
    233 Cal.App.3d 1109
    , 1125 [“Our preference for literalism
    is compelled by the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers”].) We
    note that civil limitations periods “ ‘are by definition arbitrary, and their
    operation does not discriminate between the just and the unjust claim.’ ”
    (Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland v. Superior Court (2005) 
    128 Cal.App.4th 1155
    , 1161.) Again, case law clearly establishes that transporting a patient
    via ambulance constitutes the “rendering of professional services.” Thus,
    plaintiffs are on notice to not sleep on their rights following traffic accidents
    with ambulances.
    10
    The instant collision occurred while Dayton was rendering professional
    services to a patient—i.e., transporting the patient in the AMR ambulance.
    Thus, Dayton’s allegedly negligent provision of professional services was the
    proximate cause of Lopez’s injury. Accordingly, under the analytical
    framework adopted in Flores, Lopez’s claim flows from professional
    negligence, invoking MICRA’s special one-year statute of limitations.
    4. Lopez’s Other Arguments Fail
    Lopez asserts that the special limitation period provided in
    section 340.5 was “expressly intended for medical malpractice cases.” (See
    also Gutierrez, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at p. 798 (dis. opn. of Bromberg, J.) [no
    “reason to believe that traffic accident claims involving ambulance drivers
    are covered by medical malpractice insurance”].)
    This critique conflates one of MICRA’s objectives with section 340.5’s
    reach. MICRA’s modification of section 340.5 was “designed to reduce the
    cost of medical malpractice insurance ‘by limiting the amount and timing of
    recovery in cases of professional negligence.’ ” (Flores, supra, 63 Cal.4th at p.
    81.) But there is no authority for the proposition that the applicability of
    MICRA is limited to medical malpractice claims.
    Lopez also contends defendants “failed to meet their initial burden to
    show a lack of triable issues of fact” because there is “no evidence that Lopez
    ever engaged [defendants] to provide him with any professional services” or
    “that either Dayton or AMR ever tendered Lopez’s claim to their professional
    liability insurer.” For the discussed reasons above, such facts are irrelevant
    as a matter of law.
    Because we find the trial court correctly applied MICRA’s one-year
    statute of limitations applied to Lopez’s claim, we need not resolve AMR’s
    and Dayton’s claims of limited immunity under the EMS Act.
    11
    IV.
    DISPOSITION
    The order is affirmed. Dayton is entitled to costs on appeal. (Cal.
    Rules of Court, rule 8.278, subd. (a)(2).)
    12
    LANGHORNE WILSON, J.
    WE CONCUR:
    HUMES, P. J.
    BANKE, J.
    A168458N
    13
    

Document Info

Docket Number: A168458

Filed Date: 5/23/2024

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 5/23/2024