McCormick v. United States
McCormick v. United States
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM
Plaintiff Becky McCormick (“McCormick”) appeals the adverse grant of summary judgment in her Federal Tort Claims Act medical malpractice action, arguing (1) genuine issues of material fact precluded summary judgment, and (2) the district court abused its discretion in denying her motion to compel disclosure of communications the United States asserts are privileged. Reciting the facts only as necessary, we affirm.
McCormick has presented insufficient evidence to support a claim for medical malpractice. Undisputed expert testimony establishes that Florence Morlock (“Morlock”) died because she “had taken an amount of medication in excess of that prescribed and which exceeded her tolerance.” According to that testimony, the cause of death was not Dr. Ochoa’s mismanagement of her medications. McCormick’s own expert deferred to this finding. There is therefore no evidence that Dr. Ochoa’s management of Morlock’s prescriptions was the proximate cause of her death.
McCormick has also failed to present evidence that Dr. Ochoa failed to exercise that degree of care that a prudent
Based on the evidence currently in the record, no “reasonable [jury] could find by a preponderance of the evidence that the plaintiff is entitled to a verdict.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (quoting Schuylkill & Dauphin Improvement Co. v. Munson, 81 U.S. (14 Wall.) 442, 448, 20 L.Ed. 867 (1871)). The government was therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
We decline to address McCormick’s argument with respect to the motion to compel privileged communications. Aside from her unsupported assertion that the denial of the motion to compel was “a denial of due process of law” and “clearly [a] prejudicial error,” McCormick does not argue or explain how the document’s contents might affect the disposition of the motion for summary judgment.
AFFIRMED.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
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