McCurry v. Singh (Aug. 26, 2024, C098433) __ Cal.App.5th __ [2024 WL 4141976], ordered published Sept. 10, 2024
The children of deceased patient Carol McCurry sued Dr. Inder Singh, an on-call interventional cardiologist at Mercy General Hospital, for wrongful death. McCurry was treated at Methodist Hospital for an aortic dissection when her treating physician, Dr. Michael Brandon, determined that she needed a cardiac catheterization, a procedure that Methodist Hospital did not have the capability to perform. Dr. Brandon spoke with Mercy General’s Dr. Singh, who concluded McCurry was not a candidate for the procedure, but offered to consult on her case if a Mercy General ICU doctor accepted her transfer and she was admitted. After some delay, a Mercy General ICU doctor accepted McCurry’s transfer, but she died before that transfer took place. Plaintiffs alleged that Dr. Singh negligently declined to accept McCurry’s transfer to Mercy General, causing her death. The trial court granted Dr. Singh’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that he owed McCurry no duty of care because he was never in a physician-patient relationship with her. Plaintiffs appealed.
The Court of Appeal affirmed. Rejecting contrary Arizona authority, the court explained that, under California law, a physician’s duty of care does not arise until a physician-patient relationship is formed by express or implied contract. The relationship requires the physician’s assent to treating or directly advising the patient, and physicians have no obligation to enter such agreements. In a hospital, such a relationship exists between patients and those physicians who examine, diagnose, or treat them. But absent that sort of inpatient relationship, or another recognized form of physician-patient relationship, physicians have no duty to take affirmative action to help patients. Here, Dr. Singh’s initial consultation with Dr. Brandon did not create a physician-patient relationship because Dr. Singh did not affirmatively accept responsibility for McCurry’s care. Nor did he take charge of her treatment, examine her, furnish her treatment, or advise her or her physicians. Accordingly, Dr. Singh’s decision not to treat McCurry breached no duty of care.
