May 9, 2008

The Utah Supreme Court held a therapist who told police responding to her call for help with an allegedly suicidal patient that he did not have a weapon had a common law duty to act with reasonable care.

Robinson v. Mt. Logan Clinic, LLC, ___ P.3d ___, 2008 WL 539251 (Utah Feb. 29, 2008).

A therapist was treating a patient, who allegedly had a history of gun violence, in her office at a clinic when he reportedly told the therapist that he might have a weapon with him. The therapist contacted police for assistance and was asked by the dispatcher whether the patient had any weapons. The therapist responded no, and the police came to the scene. As the patient was being escorted from the clinic by police, his gun discharged, wounding one of the police officers.

The officer and his wife sued the clinic, alleging negligent infliction of personal injury and loss of consortium. The clinic moved to dismiss under Utah Code Ann. § 78-14a-102(1), which (1) provides that a therapist owes no duty to warn others about a patient's violence except where there is a specific threat to a clearly identifiable victim and (2) holds that this duty is discharged where the therapist makes reasonable efforts to communicate the threat to the victim or notifies law enforcement of the threat. The trial court granted the motion.

Reversing, the state high court acknowledged that the plain language of § 78-14a-102(1) shows that the therapist here had no duty to warn or protect the police officer. There was no suggestion of any actual threat of physical violence toward the officer that was communicated to the therapist, the court found, adding that the officer also was not a "clearly identifiable victim" under the statute.

Nevertheless, the court determined that under common law, once the therapist undertook to answer the police dispatcher's question about whether the patient might have a gun with him, she had a duty to answer nonnegligently. Consequently, the court remanded the case for a determination of whether the therapist had acted reasonably.

Read the full case abstract in the May issue of the Professional Negligence Law Reporter. For a subscription to PNLR, subscribe online or call the Membership Department, (800) 424-2727. AAJ members who subscribe are automatically enrolled in the Professional Negligence Section, which includes online access to current and back issues of the Professional Negligence Law Reporter.

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