Weitz v. Lovelace Health System, Inc.Weitz v. Lovelace Health System, Inc.
Plaintiff-Appellant Lorraine Weitz (“Weitz”) filed an action on behalf of her sister, Arlene Gutierrez (“Arlene”), and her niece, Loretta Gutierrez (“Loretta”) in federal district court against the United States, Lovelace Health and several of its employees and business affiliates (collectively, “Lovelace”) (a mental health provider), and various other defendants.
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Weitz filed suit against the United States pursuant to
Weitz appealed the order of the district court. This court dismissed the United States from this appeal by order entered March 4, 1999. Thus, Lovelace is the only appellee and the New Mexico state law claims are the only claims remaining in this case. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to
I. BACKGROUND
On January 21, 1992, Edward Gutierrez (“Eddie”), husband of Arlene Gutierrez and father of Loretta, shot Arlene and Loretta and then took his own life. Eddie was an Air Force Staff Sergeant stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lovelace provided
Eddie and Arlene began having marital problems in the early 1990s. They attended counseling sessions in connection with these problems in December 1991. They were seen jointly on December 4 by J. Barry Rumbles, a psychotherapist employed by Lovelace who referred them to a therapist for counseling. Eddie and Arlene were then seen jointly on December 9 by Dr. Cal Bolinder. Bolinder was apparently employed by Adlerian Therapy Services, not Lovelace. Bolinder saw Eddie individually on December 12 and Arlene individually on December 11 and 20. Bol-inder also had telephone conversations with Arlene on a number of occasions. Arlene expressed concern about Eddie’s violent tendencies during these conversations. Bolinder told Arlene at the December 20 session and on the phone on December 30 that she should try to keep herself and Loretta away from Eddie.
Eddie asked Arlene to come to his home on December 29 to discuss their marriage and Arlene agreed to go. When Arlene arrived with Loretta, Eddie was drunk. Arlene and Eddie discussed divorce, and Eddie said that he would disown Loretta so that he would not have to pay child support. After Arlene told Eddie she was leaving, Eddie pulled out a handgun. Arlene managed to wrestle the gun away from Eddie. Eddie at that time threatened suicide. Arlene reported the incident the following day to Col. Richard Haupt, Eddie’s commanding officer. Haupt made an appointment for Eddie to be evaluated by the mental health clinic. When Eddie told Haupt that he felt an examination was unnecessary, Haupt ordered Eddie to go to the clinic.
Although Eddie had an appointment to see Capt. Sally Kroner, a psychiatrist and Air Force officer, he arrived late for his appointment and could not be seen by Kroner because she had another appointment. Eddie was instead seen by Genevieve Davidge, a licensed clinical social worker employed by Lovelace. Davidge observed that Eddie was anxious and that he was unsure of his ability to handle his emotions should he and Arlene divorce. Davidge concluded that Eddie was not an immediate threat to himself or others but scheduled an appointment for Eddie to return the following day for further examination. Haupt ordered Eddie to go to the December 31 appointment. After meeting with Eddie a second time, Davidge concluded that Eddie was improved. Davidge recommended continued outside counseling, but none was arranged and Eddie never received additional counseling.
During the December 30 meeting between Haupt and Eddie, Haupt asked Eddie if he would be willing to turn over his weapons to Sgt. Keith Yekel. Eddie gave his weapons to Yekel on December 31. Two weeks later, Yekel returned the guns to Eddie after Eddie asked for the guns back so that he could go “plinking,” i.e., shooting cans. On January 21, Arlene went to Eddie’s home to pick up Loretta, whom he had been babysitting. Eddie shot and killed Arlene and Loretta and then took his own life.
Weitz filed this action against the United States, CIGNA (the parent company of Lovelace), Lovelace, and other individuals. As indicated above, CIGNA was voluntarily dismissed as a party at trial and this court dismissed the United States by an order entered on March 4, 1999, pursuant to a stipulation by the parties. Weitz’s remaining claims alleged that Lovelace had acted negligently by: (1) failing to adopt adequate policies for the evaluation of airmen who had threatened suicide or murder; (2) failing to warn the United States that it had inadequate policies in this regard; (3) failing to provide an adequate system for evaluating troubled airmen who threatened suicide or murder; (4) failing to properly train their personnel; (5) failing to provide competent personnel to perform evaluations; (6) failing to adopt adequate policies to supervise personnel; and (7) failing to adequately supervise personnel. The district court
II. Discussion
A. Timeliness
We must first address whether we have jurisdiction to review the district court’s summary judgment order, or whether our review is confined to the district court’s denial of Appellant’s subsequent motion for reconsideration. Because we find that Appellant did not timely file her notice of appeal with respect to the court’s summary judgment order, we may only consider whether the district court abused its discretion in denying her motion for reconsideration.
On May 27, 1997, the district court entered its order granting summary judgment and dismissing Weitz’s claims with prejudice. On June 10,1997,
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Weitz filed a Motion for Extension of Time to File Motions Pursuant to
Generally, a party has thirty days from the entry of the district court’s order or judgment within which to file a notice of appeal.
See
We must first examine whether it is proper to view Appellant’s post-judgment motion as a
In rare cases, however, these time limits can be extended where the party makes a showing of “unique circumstances” justifying the delay.
See Thompson v. INS,
It is clear that the district court was not empowered to grant Appellant additional time to file her 59(e) motion.
In
Stauber v. Kieser,
One of our post-Osiemeck decisions suggests that
Stauber
is no longer good law. In
Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London v. Evans,
In the present case, Appellant’s counsel could have avoided this mistake by reading
Moreover,
Ostemeck
limited the application of the unique circumstances rule to instances “where a party has performed an act which, if properly done,- would postpone the deadline for filing his appeal.”
It makes great practical sense to require the parties to comply with clearly mandated requirements in the Federal Rules. Otherwise, we would be encouraging litigants to invite courts to commit easily avoidable errors. District courts today suffer under a burdensome caseload, and a certain degree of cooperation and assistance from litigants is essential to the judicial system’s effective operation. Just as we require attorneys to certify that all arguments presented to the
court
have legal and factual bases,
see
“In the case of an intervening Supreme Court ruling, a single panel is permitted to reconsider a previous Tenth Circuit decision to the extent the new case law invalidates our previous analysis.”
Hurd v. Pittsburg State Univ.,
Consequently, Appellant is not entitled to the tolling provision of
B. Standard of Review
“We review ... the disposition of
C. Merits
Under New Mexico law, Lovelace cannot be held liable for the deaths of Arlene and Loretta unless Appellant can show that Lovelace owed a duty of care to Arlene and Loretta Gutierrez.
See Calkins v. Cox Estates,
1. Duty to Control
Weitz argues the district court erred when it concluded that Lovelace had no duty to protect Arlene and Loretta from Eddie’s violent propensities. The New Mexico Supreme Court has explained:
In the control cases, courts have relied upon Section 315 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts to find a special relationship between doctor and patient, which creates a special duty to control that patient’s actions. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 315 (1965). This doctrine, holding institutions and doctors potentially liable for patients with known “dangerous propensities” has been recognized in New Mexico. See Kelly v. Board of Trustees,87 N.M. 112 ,529 P.2d 1233 (Ct.App.), cert. denied,87 N.M. 112 ,529 P.2d 1232 (1974); see also Stake v. Woman’s Div. of Christian Serv.,73 N.M. 303 ,387 P.2d 871 (1963).
Wilschinsky,
At present, New Mexico law states that the duty to control “must stem from the doctor’s control over his offices ..., not from a duty to control a patient with known dangerous propensities.”
Wilschinsky,
The facts of the present case indicate that New Mexico most likely would not impose such a duty on Lovelace. Lovelace treated Eddie on an outpatient basis, and it did so on only three occasions. In addition, some three weeks had elapsed between Eddie’s last encounter with Lovelace and the murders of his wife and daughter. Relative to a situation where a patient is in the custodial or long-term care of a health care provider, Eddie’s contact with Lovelace was minimal in both duration and degree. Thus, it would be unreasonable to conclude that Lovelace had the sort of substantial relationship with Eddie giving rise to a duty, much less the practical ability, to control him.
2. Duty to Warn
Appellants further suggest that Lovelace owed a duty to warn Arlene and Loretta of Eddie’s violent propensities. New Mexico has noted that many courts recognize “a duty to warn when a specific, identifiable third party [victim] was known to the doctor,”
Wilschinsky,
Other jurisdictions considering the matter have held that a victim’s awareness of the potential harm negates the health care provider’s duty to warn.
See, e.g., Boulan-ger,
In the present case it is clear that Arlene was aware of both Eddie’s threats against her and his propensity for violence. Records from a counseling session Arlene attended December 20 indicate that she was aware of Eddie’s violent tendencies and the possibility that he might harm her and her daughter. At that session, Arlene agreed with the therapist to avoid situations where Eddie might “be in a position to do harm to either one of them.” Following the December 29th incident in which Eddie pointed a gun at Arlene, Arlene told her sister that she was afraid he would kill her. The therapist’s records confirm Arlene’s awareness of the threat:
A major turning point happened when Eddie threatened Arlene and her daughter with a gun.... Once she got out of the house she knew that it was not safe to be around Eddie, ever again. She knew she could not trust him.... The threat of death directed towards Arlene and her daughter convinced me that things had definitely gotten out of hand.... After some discussion I told Arlene the following: She must keep both herself and her daughter away from Eddie no matter how skillful he is at attempting to get them alone with him.
Thus, there can be no doubt that Arlene was fully aware of Eddie’s potential for violence against her and her daughter. 4 As a result, we believe New Mexico would conclude on these facts that Lovelace did not have a duty to warn Arlene and her daughter.
Under the deferential standard of review to be applied to rulings on a
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the Appellant’s post-judgment motion should be treated as one under
Notes
. These other defendants were voluntarily dismissed at the summary judgment hearing and are not parties on appeal.
. Excluding intervening weekends, any motion to alter or amend under
. Following Wilschinsky, we treat separately situations where a patient receives an injection of powerful medications on an outpatient basis.
. Lovelace alleged that Arlene's awareness of Eddie’s threats relieved Lovelace of any duty to warn Arlene or Loretta. Appellant has not argued to this court that Arlene’s awareness is insufficient to impute the same state of mind to her daughter. Thus, although it is unclear how New Mexico would resolve this issue,
see Rider v. Albuquerque Pub. Sch.,