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Different State, Different Outcome: Medical Malpractice v. Common Law Negligence

By Janice G. Inman
September 01, 2016

Last month, we discussed Flores v. Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, 2016 Cal. LEXIS 2561 (Cal. 5/5/16), a recent California case in which the state's high court was asked to determine whether a lawsuit was properly pleaded as one for common law negligence, rather than medical malpractice. The answer was crucial to the parties, as it would determine whether the case could go to trial or must be dismissed. California's Supreme Court dealt the plaintiff a blow when it sided with the defense to find that the case of the faulty bed rail did indeed sound in malpractice, and the claim must be dismissed because it was filed after the statute of limitations for medical malpractice actions had passed.

Another recent case ' this one out of Tennessee ' also dealt with a motion for summary judgment turning on the question of whether the plaintiff's claim was one for medical malpractice or for common law negligence. It was decided in a very different way from the Flores case because Tennessee has a unique statutory framework for medical negligence claims.

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