Justin LUND v. MILFORD HOSPITAL, INC.
Justin LUND v. MILFORD HOSPITAL, INC.
Opinion
**848 The plaintiff, Justin Lund, a Connecticut state trooper, brought this action against the defendant, Milford Hospital, Inc., seeking damages for personal injuries sustained while subduing an emotionally disturbed person, Dale Pariseau, who had been committed to the defendant's custody on an emergency basis for psychiatric evaluation. The plaintiff has alleged that the defendant was negligent in numerous ways, including (1) failing to supervise or restrain Pariseau properly, (2) failing to provide for adequate security in the area where foreseeably dangerous patients are held, (3) allowing Pariseau, who was known to be dangerous, to go to the bathroom unrestrained and unaccompanied, and (4) failing to train its staff properly.
The record contains the following relevant procedural history. The plaintiff filed a substitute complaint
1
**849
pursuant to
*482
Practice Book § 10-44
2
after the trial court granted the defendant's motion to strike his original complaint on the ground that the claims set forth therein were barred by "underlying justifications for the [firefighter's] rule ...." In sustaining the defendant's objection to the substitute complaint, the trial court concluded that, despite certain new allegations, the plaintiff's pleading failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted because this court's decision in
Kaminski
v.
Fairfield
,
The governing legal principles on motions to strike are very well established. "[A]fter a court has granted a motion to strike, [a party] may either amend his pleading [pursuant to Practice Book § 10-44 ] or, on the rendering of judgment, file an appeal.... The choices are mutually exclusive [as the] filing of an amended pleading operates as a waiver of the right to claim that there was error in the sustaining of the [motion to strike] the original pleading.... Stated another way: When an amended pleading is filed, it operates as a waiver of the original pleading. The original pleading drops out of the case and although it remains in the file, it cannot serve as the basis for any future judgment, and previous rulings on the original pleading cannot be made the subject of appeal." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
Ed Lally & Associates, Inc.
v.
DSBNC, LLC
,
If the plaintiff elects to replead following the granting of a motion to
*483
strike, the defendant may take advantage of this waiver rule by challenging the amended complaint as not "materially different than the [stricken] ... pleading that the court had determined to be legally insufficient. That is, the issue [on appeal becomes] whether the court properly determined that the plaintiffs had failed to remedy the pleading deficiencies that gave rise to the granting of the motions to strike or, in the alternative, set forth an entirely new cause of action. It is proper for a court to dispose of the substance of a complaint merely repetitive of one to which a demurrer had earlier been sustained."
**851
Caltabiano
v.
L & L Real Estate Holdings II, LLC
, supra,
For example, in
Parsons
, the trial court had stricken an earlier wrongful termination count on the ground that the complaint had "fail[ed] to specify a particular 'workplace' or 'place of employment' within Bahrain that was allegedly unsafe. The [trial] court held that the plaintiff's allegation that the entire nation was generally unsafe was insufficient."
Parsons
v.
United Technologies Corp.
, supra,
The defendant argues that the trial court properly concluded that the substitute complaint was not materially **855 different from the original complaint and, therefore, properly sustained its objection. We disagree. While the original and substitute complaints at issue in the present appeal contain similar factual allegations and specifications of negligence, there are significant differences that appear to address the trial court's determination that the claims in the original complaint were barred by the justifications underlying the firefighter's rule. In particular, the original complaint alleged that the plaintiff followed the ambulance transporting Pariseau to the defendant's facilities to " both ... check upon the condition of the [police officers] injured by Pariseau incident to his arrest, and to attend to the paperwork necessary for Pariseau's emergency committal as a psychiatric patient. To this end, he brought with him Pariseau's effects, specifically the quantities of psychotropic prescription drugs [found in Pariseau's car] as evidence of the necessity of such committal." (Emphasis added.) The original complaint then alleges that, when the plaintiff arrived at the defendant's facilities, "he first checked on the condition of the injured [police officers], then he attended to filling out the emergency committal paperwork for Pariseau. Pursuant to committal, [the defendant] took Pariseau into custody based on the evidence of the clear danger he posed to the public. During this process, [the plaintiff] was shown by [the defendant's employees] that Pariseau was in a holding room under *486 observation, undergoing a full psychiatric evaluation. [The plaintiff] saw that Pariseau had been placed in restraints by [the defendant's employees]." (Emphasis added.)
In granting the defendant's motion to strike the original complaint, the trial court agreed with the plaintiff that this court stated in
Levandoski
v.
Cone , supra,
The new and revised factual allegations in the substitute complaint are responsive to the memorandum of decision granting the motion to strike insofar as they deemphasize, or eliminate entirely, the plaintiff's role in Pariseau's committal. First, the substitute complaint contains a new paragraph alleging that the plaintiff first proceeded to Bridgeport Hospital "to follow up with [a separate] accident," which had occurred prior to and in the vicinity of Pariseau's accident. See footnote 1 of this opinion. The substitute complaint then alleges that, "[u]pon the completion of his obligations as to the first accident, the plaintiff left Bridgeport Hospital and proceeded to [the defendant's facilities], to check upon the condition of the [police officers] injured by Pariseau incident to his arrest." Notably, the substitute complaint omits the allegation from the original complaint concerning the plaintiff's role in completing the documents necessary for Pariseau's emergency committal. The substitute complaint further minimizes the plaintiff's role in the committal of Pariseau, alleging that, when
**857
the plaintiff arrived at the defendant's facilities, "he first checked on the condition of the [injured police and officers and then] attended to additional paperwork." The substitute complaint then specifically alleges that, "[b]ased upon the actions of Pariseau and the observations of [the injured police officers], an emergency committal was completed for Pariseau pursuant to [General Statutes] § 17a-503(a)." To this end, the substitute complaint also alleges that the defendant "did not at any time call for or seek or invite in any regard the assistance of the Connecticut state troopers, including but not limited to [the plaintiff]."
8
*487
Read in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the allegations set forth in the plaintiff's substitute complaint constitute a "good faith effort" to address the pleading deficiency identified by the trial court in granting the motion to strike the original complaint.
Parsons
v.
United Technologies Corp.
, supra,
II
We note that, following this court's decisions in Kaminski and Levandoski , some trial court judges have continued to apply the firefighter's rule 9 to nonpremises liability claims while others have not. In the present case, the trial court relied on Jainchill v. Friends of Kenney Park , supra, Superior Court, Docket No. CV-00-0800130-S, which had applied the justifications underlying firefighter's rule to a nonpremises liability claim. In granting the defendant's motion to strike, the trial court in the present case found that "the alleged acts of negligence were 'intimately connected with the very occasion for which the plaintiff was on the property' " because "[s]pecifically, according to the complaint, the plaintiff knew about Pariseau's violent and unstable emotional condition because the plaintiff had arrested him and brought him to the hospital."
**859 In response, the plaintiff added multiple new allegations to clarify the circumstances under which the plaintiff had gone to the defendant's facilities and certain other facts on which the trial court had previously relied. Specifically, the substitute complaint alleged that (1) the plaintiff had been on duty on Interstate 95 in connection with an entirely unrelated accident before encountering Pariseau, (2) the plaintiff had traveled to Bridgeport Hospital in connection with his duties relating to the other accident before traveling to the defendant's facilities, (3) the plaintiff had *488 traveled to the defendant's facilities in order to check on the police officers who had arrested Pariseau and to complete additional paperwork, (4) Pariseau was brought to the defendant's facilities by an ambulance, not by the plaintiff, and (5) the defendant had accepted custody of Pariseau, in its institutional capacity, as a professional custodian with a degree of special competence.
In sustaining the defendant's objection to the substitute complaint, the trial court held that the defendant's negligent act was " 'intimately connected' with the very reason ... the plaintiff ... acted to apprehend Pariseau when he attempted to escape" and that "the plaintiff was injured while acting in the performance of his duty as a police officer ...."
10
In reaching its conclusion, the trial court again cited
Jainchill
and
Kaminski.
As this court has recently clarified in
Sepega
v.
DeLaura
,
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings according to law.
In this opinion ROGERS, C.J., and ESPINOSA, Js., concurred.
ROBINSON, J., with whom McDONALD, J., joins, dissenting.
I respectfully disagree with part II of the majority's opinion, which concludes that the claims of the plaintiff, Justin Lund, a Connecticut state trooper, are not barred by the firefighter's rule in accordance with
Sepega
v.
DeLaura
,
My analysis of the firefighter's rule is framed by a review of the operative facts, as pleaded in the substitute complaint. 2 The substitute complaint alleges that Dale Pariseau was transported by ambulance to the defendant's emergency room for psychiatric observation following his violent and irrational behavior-including attacks that injured two other Connecticut state troopers-at the scene of an automobile accident on Interstate 95. The plaintiff, who had been attending to an earlier accident nearby, went to the defendant's emergency room to check on the two police officers who had been injured by Pariseau; the defendant's staff did not "at any time" ask for the assistance of any other police officers, including the plaintiff, with regard to Pariseau. In the process of checking on the injured officers, the defendant's staff showed the plaintiff that Pariseau was being restrained under observation while undergoing a full psychiatric evaluation. The plaintiff relied on their representations that Pariseau had been properly secured and restrained.
After gathering up Pariseau's effects and leaving the emergency room, the plaintiff looked into Pariseau's **862 room and noticed that he was no longer there. The plaintiff asked where Pariseau had gone, and a nurse indicated that he had gone unaccompanied and unrestrained into a bathroom behind the nurse's station to change into a hospital gown. The plaintiff then knocked on the locked bathroom door, heard water running in the sink, and asked Pariseau to unlock the door. Pariseau asked for more time in the bathroom, with the water still running. After ten minutes, Pariseau flung open the door and ran out, hurling a garbage can that was filled with a mix of hot water and his own urine at the plaintiff, another police officer, and two nurses. The plaintiff pursued Pariseau, but slipped in the mix of urine and water on the floor. The plaintiff then caught up to Pariseau, and sustained injuries to his head, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand in the ensuing struggle.
The plaintiff then brought the civil action underlying the present appeal, alleging that the defendant was negligent in numerous ways, including (1) failing to supervise or restrain Pariseau properly, (2) failing to provide for adequate security in the area where foreseeably dangerous patients are held, (3) allowing Pariseau, who was known to be dangerous, to go to the bathroom unrestrained and unaccompanied, and (4) failing to train its staff properly.
In my concurring opinion in
Sepega
, I disagreed with the majority's decision to limit the firefighter's rule to premises liability cases and concluded that, like the vast majority of our sister states, Connecticut should retain "the common-law firefighter's rule as a matter of public policy, notwithstanding underlying doctrinal changes such as the statutory abolition of assumption of risk or differing landowners' duties."
Sepega
v.
DeLaura , supra,
In
Sepega
, I agreed with the enumeration of the firefighter's rule by the Rhode Island Supreme Court in
Ellinwood
v.
Cohen
,
With respect to the circumstances under which it is appropriate for our first responders to seek redress, I found instructive the Kansas Supreme Court's recent formulation of exceptions to the firefighter's rule in
**864
Apodaca
v.
Willmore
,
Assuming the applicability of the firefighter's rule, the plaintiff argues that the subsequent negligence exception allows him to maintain this action against the defendant. Specifically, the plaintiff argues that, "[w]hether [he] even came to the [defendant's facilities] in the exercise of
any
official capacity, he was clearly not summoned by the [defendant]. He was, thus, injured not by the negligence which caused his engagement (the accident on the highway), but rather-once he completed his official duties-by the [defendant's]
subsequent
negligence in failing properly to control a dangerous psychiatric patient who had been previously delivered to its custody." (Emphasis in original.) I disagree. Rather, in concluding that the plaintiff's claim is barred by the firefighter's rule-despite the fact that he acted independently and was not summoned by the defendant's staff to aid in controlling Pariseau-I find highly instructive the decision of the California Court of Appeal in
Seibert Security Services, Inc.
v.
Superior Court
,
*491
In
Seibert Security Services, Inc.
, a police officer, John Migailo, had brought a suspect in custody to a hospital for examination of possible injuries. Id., at 402,
**865
While Migailo was doing paperwork, a psychiatric patient became abusive toward a privately employed security guard and another police officer.
The California court rejected the argument that the firefighter's rule did not apply because Migailo's "presence was unrelated to the negligence which caused his injury." Id., at 407,
The Rhode Island court emphasized in
Higgins
that the firefighter's rule "was never intended to impose a literal requirement for the alleged tortfeasor to have called the [first responder] to the scene in order for the rule to apply.... What is required is that there be some nexus or connection between the alleged tortfeasor and the emergency that brought the [first responder] to the place where he or she was injured." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
These cases demonstrate that, for purposes of the firefighter's rule, it was of no moment that the plaintiff in the present case, as an on-duty police officer, did not act in response to a formal request by the defendant for assistance, but rather, exercised his own initiative to check on, and ultimately subdue, Pariseau. I recognize
*493
that, "while the firefighter's rule may be a wise one, implementation often depends on fortuitous circumstances," and that, at least in some ways, its application to the present case would have rewarded the plaintiff "had he chosen to ignore his duty, and penalize[d] him for his courage and conscientiousness" in voluntarily acting to restrain Pariseau.
Kelhi
v.
Fitzpatrick , supra,
Because I would affirm the judgment of the trial court in favor of the defendant, I respectfully dissent.
The substitute complaint alleges the following underlying facts. Pariseau had been transported to the defendant's facilities and committed for psychiatric observation following certain violent and irrational behavior-including attacks that injured two police officers-at the scene of an automobile accident on Interstate 95. The plaintiff, who had been attending to an earlier accident nearby and had assisted in Pariseau's arrest, subsequently traveled to the defendant's facilities to check on the condition of the injured police officers. The defendant did not "at any time" ask for the assistance of any police officer, including the plaintiff, with regard to Pariseau. In the process of checking on the injured police officers, the defendant's employees showed the plaintiff that Pariseau was being restrained under observation while undergoing a full psychiatric evaluation. The plaintiff relied on the representations of the defendant's employees that Pariseau had been properly secured and restrained.
Shortly before leaving, the plaintiff noticed that Pariseau was no longer in his room. The plaintiff asked where Pariseau had gone, and a nurse indicated that he had gone unaccompanied and unrestrained into the bathroom behind the nurse's station to change into a hospital gown. The plaintiff then knocked on the locked bathroom door, heard water running in the sink, and asked Pariseau to unlock the door. Pariseau asked for more time in the bathroom, with the water still running. After ten minutes, Pariseau flung open the door and ran out, hurling a garbage can that was filled with a mix of hot water and his own urine at the plaintiff, another police officer, and two nurses. The plaintiff, after slipping and falling in the mix of urine and water on the floor, caught up with Pariseau and, with the assistance of others, subdued him. In the course of these events, the plaintiff sustained injuries to his head, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand.
Practice Book § 10-44 provides: "Within fifteen days after the granting of any motion to strike, the party whose pleading has been stricken may file a new pleading; provided that in those instances where an entire complaint, counterclaim or cross complaint, or any count in a complaint, counterclaim or cross complaint has been stricken, and the party whose pleading or a count thereof has been so stricken fails to file a new pleading within that fifteen day period, the judicial authority may, upon motion, enter judgment against said party on said stricken complaint, counterclaim or cross complaint, or count thereof. Nothing in this section shall dispense with the requirements of Sections 61-3 or 61-4 of the appellate rules."
The plaintiff appealed from the judgment of the trial court to the Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199 (c) and Practice Book § 65-1.
"An example of a proper pleading filed pursuant to Practice Book § 10-44 is one that [supplies] the essential allegation lacking in the complaint that was stricken." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
Perugini
v.
Giuliano
,
Subsequent appellate review of this comparative process is plenary because it considers the trial court's interpretation of the pleadings. See, e.g.,
Caltabiano
v.
L & L Real Estate Holdings II, LLC
, supra,
We note that the defendant's arguments regarding this issue may be premised on a misunderstanding of the trial court's memorandum of decision. Specifically, the introduction to the trial court's decision sustaining the defendant's objection to the substitute complaint states generally that the court "agrees" with the defendant's arguments "that the allegations of the substitute complaint are insufficient to cure the legal deficiencies of the earlier pleading. The defendant requests that its objection be sustained and that judgment enter in its favor based on the plaintiff's failure to file an adequate substitute pleading in response to the order granting the motion to strike. See Practice Book § 10-44." Acknowledging the changes made to the allegations in the substitute complaint, the trial court nevertheless concluded that the "substantive allegations of the substitute complaint describing the circumstances of the plaintiff's injur[ies] remain essentially the same as those of the original complaint." The trial court's analysis does
not
, however, specifically conclude that the substitute complaint lacked "materially different" allegations; see
Caltabiano
v.
L & L Real Estate Holdings II, LLC
, supra,
A comparison of other cases is helpful to illustrate those amendments that rise to the level of "materially different" for purposes of avoiding the waiver rule. Compare
Alexander
v.
Commissioner of Administrative Services
,
The plaintiff also added new allegations to the substitute complaint concerning the defendant's duty. The substitute complaint emphasized that the plaintiff "at no time assumed a duty as a public servant to protect a mentally compromised individual" and that the plaintiff had acted under an assumption that, following Pariseau's committal, the defendant and its employees "would perform to the reasonable standards inherent in their duty as professional custodians so as not to risk the safety and well-being of others." The plaintiff also added numerous allegations emphasizing the defendant's special competence and relationship of custody and control over Pariseau in light of the emergency committal under § 17a-503(a).
We note that the substitute complaint also contains certain immaterial differences, namely, an allegation that the plaintiff walked from the first accident on Interstate 95 to a second accident involving Pariseau. See footnote 1 of this opinion. Likewise, the substitute complaint also provides greater detail about the plaintiff's injuries.
The common-law firefighter's rule provides, in general terms, that a firefighter or police officer who enters private property in the exercise of his or her duties cannot bring a civil action against the property owner for injuries sustained as the result of a defect in the premises. See
Levandoski
v.
Cone , supra,
We note that this language, which is different from that used by the trial court in granting the motion to strike, appears to dispense with any requirement of antecedent negligence on the property and, thereby, would provide immunity to a defendant whenever there is any negligence that triggers a response by a public safety officer in the performance of his or her official duties. This test would convert the firefighter's rule into an outright ban on any claim by a public safety officer who was injured through the negligence of a third party while on duty. For the reasons stated in
Sepega
v.
DeLaura
,
The plaintiff has requested that we recognize § 319 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. In view of our decision that the substitute complaint stated a valid cause of action, it is unnecessary for us to reach that issue.
I note that I agree with, and join in, part I of the majority's opinion.
The standards governing review of a motion to strike are well established. See, e.g.,
Lawrence
v.
O & G Industries, Inc.
,
I note that the doctrine known in Connecticut as the firefighter's rule has been described in other jurisdictions in broader terms such as the "public safety officer's rule" or the "professional rescuer doctrine."
Sepega
v.
De L aura , supra,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Lund v. Milford Hospital, Inc. Dissent
- Cited By
- 18 cases
- Status
- Published