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FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE # 89 FROM: CLERK OF SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA The Opinions handed down on the 1st day of December, 2004, are as follows: BY CALOGERO, C.J.: 2004-C -0451 VAYNEARY WILLIAMSON v. HOSPITAL SERVICE DISTRICT NO. 1 OF JEFFERSON D/B/A WEST JEFFERSON MEDICAL CENTER (Parish of Jefferson) Therefore, the rulings of the lower courts are reversed and this matter is remanded to the district court for further proceedings. REVERSED AND REMANDED. Judge Phillip C. Ciaccio, retired, sitting ad hoc for Associate Justice Chet D. Traylor, recued.

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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 2004-C-0451 VAYNEARY WILLIAMSON VERSUS HOSPITAL SERVICE DISTRICT NO. 1 OF JEFFERSON d/b/a WEST JEFFERSON MEDICAL CENTER ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL FIFTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON CALOGERO, Chief Justice* Not every unintentional tort committed by a qualified health care provider falls within the Medical Malpractice Act, only those "arising from medical malpractice." La. Rev. Stat. 40:1299.41(l). Plaintiff alleges in her petition, as supplemented and amended by her second supplemental and amending petition, that she was being pushed in a wheelchair by an employee of the defendant, West Jefferson Medical Center, when the wheel fell off causing her to fall and suffer injury. She further alleges that the defendant and its employee negligently failed to repair the wheelchair and negligently failed to insure that the wheelchair was in proper working condition prior to returning it to service. Finding that the plaintiff should have presented her claim to a medical review panel, the district court sustained the defendant's exception of prematurity, and the court of appeal affirmed that ruling. Williamson v. Hospital Service Dist. No. 1 of Jefferson Parish, 03-1066 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1/27/04), 866 So.2d 962. We granted the writ to consider the correctness of the appeal court's analysis in which it employed a "broad interpretation" of the Act's definition of medical malpractice before determining whether the plaintiff's claim fell within the purview of the Medical

Judge Phillip C. Ciaccio, retired, sitting ad hoc for Associate Justice Chet D. Traylor, recused. 1

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Malpractice Act. Williamson v. Hospital Service Dist. No. 1 of Jefferson Parish, 040451 (La. 4/8/04), 870 So.2d 261. For the reasons assigned below, we find the court of appeal erred in not strictly construing coverage of the Medical Malpractice Act. See Sewell v. Doctors Hosp., 600 So.2d 577, 578 (La. 1992). Instead, we find that the plaintiff's petition, as supplemented and amended, alleges a claim of ordinary negligence that does not fall within the provisions of the Medical Malpractice Act. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeal, as well as the ruling of the district court, and remand the matter to the district court for further proceedings. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The facts of the case at this interlocutory stage of the proceedings are taken from the plaintiff's original petition as amended by her second supplemental and amending petition. In her petition as supplemented and amended, the plaintiff alleges that on July 31, 2000, after she was discharged from West Jefferson Medical Center, and as she was being pushed in a wheelchair by an employee of the defendant, a wheel on the wheelchair fell off causing her to be thrown to the ground resulting in injury. She alleges that, according to the defendant's risk management officer, the wheel of the wheelchair had been repaired by the defendant's personnel several days before the incident. She alleges that her injuries were caused by the fault of the defendant or its personnel in negligently failing to repair the wheelchair, negligently failing to supervise the repair of the wheelchair, and negligently failing to insure the wheelchair was in proper working condition prior to returning the wheelchair to service. She further pleaded the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. The defendant filed an exception of prematurity in response to the plaintiff's original petition asserting her claim was a medical malpractice claim that should have been, but was not, presented first to a medical review panel, as required by the Mecial

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Malpractice Act.1 One day prior to the hearing on the defendant's exception of prematurity, the plaintiff filed the second supplemental and amending petition. At the hearing on the defendant's exception of prematurity, the plaintiff argued her petition as that supplemented and amended by the second supplemental and amending petition, rather than argue the allegations of her original petition. The defendant referred primarily to the original allegations, rather than the supplemental and amending allegations. The district court apparently granted the defendant's exception of prematurity based largely on the original petition, but it nonetheless granted the plaintiff leave to supplement and amend that petition.2 The court of appeal considered both the original petition and the second supplemental and amending petition, finding that the plaintiff was "alleging WJMC should have known of the defect in the wheelchair and that WJMC's negligence caused the wheelchair to fail." The court of appeal applied the factors set forth in Coleman v. Deno, 01-1517 (La. 1/25/02, 813 So.2d 303, and affirmed the ruling of the district court granting the defendant's exception of prematurity. We granted writs to review the correctness of the appellate court's judgment and reasoning therefor.

In her original petition, the plaintiff alleged that she had been a patient at West Jefferson Medical Center and that the she was being pushed in the wheelchair to the parking lot of the hospital. She had also alleged that the defendant's employee negligently failed to inspect the wheelchair before using it, failed to use reasonable measures or precautions to avoid the incident, carelessly used the wheelchair to transport her when he knew or should have known that it was not fit for its intended purpose, and that he failed to use reasonable care under the circumstances. As to the defendant, the plaintiff had made similar allegations and also alleged that the hospital carelessly allowed one of its employees to use the wheelchair to transport her, failed to implement proper safety, inspection or maintenance policies and procedures to insure the wheelchair was in good operating condition, and failed to properly maintain and keep the wheelchair in a reasonably safe working condition. Some of these allegations, however, were essentially abandoned, as plaintiff's counsel acknowledged at oral argument, when the plaintiff filed her second supplemental and amending petition. The record reflects that the district court properly granted the plaintiff leave to file her second supplemental and amending petition. See La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 1151; La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 1155. The plaintiff's motion to file the second supplemental and amending petition was granted by the trial judge with an order signed on April 11, 2003, the day of the hearing on the exception of prematurity. Additionally, the transcript of that hearing reveals the trial judge stated he would permit the plaintiff to file an amending petition. 3
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DISCUSSION The dilatory exception of prematurity provided in La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 926 questions whether the cause of action has matured to the point where it is ripe for judicial determination. Spradlin v. Acadia-St. Landry Medical Foundation, 98-1977 (La. 2/29/00), 758 So.2d 116; see also Frank L. Maraist and Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., Louisiana Tort Law

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