Greenway v. Northside Hosp., Inc.

317 Ga.App. 371

730 S.E.2d 742

GREENWAY

v.NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL, INC. d/b/a Northside Hospital, et al.

No. A12A0705.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

July 31, 2012.

McFarland & McFarland, Robert P. McFarland, for appellant.

Temple, Strickland, Dinges & Schwartz, William D. Temple, Scrudder, Bass, Quillian, Horlock. Taylor & Lazarus, Matthew P. Lazarus, Rodney W. Hood, Trisha L. Lewis, Jarrard & Davis, Thomas R. Mondelli, for appellees.

BOGGS, Judge.

Michael Greenway appeals from the trial court's order granting summary judgment to Northside Hospital ("Northside"), Sheriff Ted Paxton, Deputy Terry Roper, and NALAA Corporation ("NALAA"). He contends genuine issues of material fact exist with regard to the liability of each appellee for the euthanasia of his dogs while he was admitted as a patient at Northside. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Sheriff Paxton and reverse the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Deputy Roper, Northside, and NALAA.

Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. OCGA § 9–11–56(c). On appeal from the grant or denial of summary judgment, we apply a de novo standard of review and view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Benton v. Benton, 280 Ga. 468, 470, 629 S.E.2d 204 (2006).

So viewed, the record shows that Michael Greenway was taken to Northside by ambulance on January 19, 2007.¹ Greenway recalled telling emergency personnel that his "dogs are in the back yard, they will be fine." His neighbor, Donald Green, talked with EMT and police personnel in Greenway's home and told them that he "would look after the dogs...." According to Green, he "had an understanding" with Greenway that he "would help [Greenway] take care of these two dogs whenever he needed me." After Greenway left for the hospital, Green immediately fed and watered the dogs and observed that " they never approached their food in a manner one would associate with starving dogs."

Greenway testified that when he arrived at the hospital emergency room, he "didn't know what was going on. I didn't know, you know, where I was. My space orientation was not good. I didn't know, just didn't know what was going on." He recalled "total chaos," and a nurse saying "he's not going to make it" because his blood pressure was so low. At some point, a patient advocate met with him in the emergency department and asked whether someone else was at his home, and Greenway "said no, except my two dogs." He believed the first mention of his dogs was after the patient advocate arrived.

He denied asking anyone to call county officials about his dogs and "didn't understand why the patient advocate would even have called anybody." He explained that he was "out of it" and did not know how much time passed before deputies came into the room with a patient advocate. Greenway was "baffled why the police were even there." He thought three deputies in uniform came into the room, but it "may have only been two and they just kept going around." Greenway testified that "the whole room was full of people."

The deputies asked Greenway to sign a form, but no one could find his glasses. Greenway testified that he "is almost totally blind without [his] glasses," and explained that he needs them to read. He refused to sign the form because he could not read it without his glasses. He asked that it be read to him and someone said "they couldn't read it to me, by law." Greenway testified that he repeatedly said, "I'm not signing this form until somebody tells me what the h* *l what it is I'm signing."

According to Greenway, the nurses and a doctor told him, in the presence of the deputies and the patient advocate, the purpose of the form was that if he "did die, then [his] dogs would go to the Humane Society." The doctor told him that Forsyth County has a policy that you can get your animals back within seven days. Greenway claimed that "[t]hey found out later that it's actually 10 days." Greenway could not recall the deputies correcting information provided to him by hospital personnel and he believed they were present when the statements were made. The only thing he could recall the deputy saying was "[j]ust sign the damn form." He recalled a doctor telling the deputies "either get this form signed or get out of here because you're not sterile." Greenway testified that the doctor also told him "sign the form to get these guys out of here."

Greenway testified that he could not believe he was being asked to sign the document "when I was so out of it," and admitted that he ultimately signed it without reading the entire document. He was able to read the large type words "Owner Release Form" at the top of the form and acknowledged that someone told him the reason he was giving up ownership was his medical condition. Greenway testified that his signature is the only thing written by him on the form.

Based on information provided to him in the emergency room, Greenway testified that he believed his animals were going to the Humane Society and that, if he lived, he would be able to get them back within seven to ten days. At another point in his deposition, Greenway testified that the "[o]nly reason I turned over the dogs is because they told me I was dying." He explained that he understood his animals were going to the Humane Society and that he would never have signed the form if he had known they would be taken to the pound.

According to Greenway, the only actions he could recall being taken by the deputies in the emergency room were: (1) ordering him to sign the release and (2) placing a big "X" beside the line where he needed to sign. He believes they said other things to him, but he does not "remember what all they said."

At some point after he signed the form, Greenway received his glasses. He read the form, discovered that his animals could be euthanized, and "bells, whistles and everything went off" in his mind. Before he could do anything about what he had signed, he was sedated. When he woke up in a regular hospital room, he talked with the charge nurse about getting his dogs back. After she made some inquiries, she returned with tears in her eyes and informed Greenway that his dogs had already been euthanized.

Greenway testified that he holds the patient advocate responsible for the death of his dogs because the patient advocate contacted the police. He also testified that when the medical personnel volunteered information about the seven to ten day time period in which he could seek the return of his dogs, he expected them to provide him with correct information.

While the deputies and hospital personnel provided very different accounts of their interaction with Greenway, we must view the facts in the light most favorable to Greenway, the nonmovant, and we therefore summarize only portions of their deposition testimony. Northside's patient registration clerk testified that she completed admission paperwork for Greenway and wrote "unable to sign" on his admission paperwork. Although she could not recall the specific reason he did not sign the paperwork, she acknowledged that it was possible he was unable to communicate with her.

Northside's patient relations representative, Jeffrey Hancock, testified that he was called by a nurse, Nickie Stockel, who informed him that "[s]he had a patient in the emergency room who was concerned about the welfare of his pets and wanted to know if [he] could come over to the room." When Hancock arrived, Stockel "introduced [him] to Mr. Greenway, told [him] what was going on, and said, do you think that we should call Animal Control or the Humane Society and see if there's some way they could help." Hancock did not recall Greenway saying anything about not having fed his dogs. According to Hancock, Greenway denied having any friends or family or neighbors who could take care of the dogs. Hancock acknowledged that he did not look for any emergency contact information in Greenway's hospital records.

Hancock testified that he did not "know what the exact relationship is between Animal Control and Humane Society. The first point of contact is generally Animal Control." At the time he talked with Stockel, he thought that "the Forsyth County Animal Control and the Forsyth County Humane Society [were] the same organization." During his deposition, he repeatedly misspoke and said Humane Society when he intended to refer to Animal Control, and he admitted several times that he did not know if they were the same organization.

After his first meeting with Stockel and Greenway in the emergency room, Hancock returned to his office and called Forsyth County Animal Control. He admitted that Greenway never asked him to call Animal Control after their first meeting. After several conversations with Greenway and Animal Control about different options available to Greenway, Hancock "advised [Greenway] that the only option for Animal Control at this point was to pick the dogs up and for them to be turned over to Animal Control permanently." He believed he said "Animal Control" to Greenway, but admitted that he "can't say for sure." When Greenway "said he did not want to do that," Hancock left the emergency room. A short time later, Stockel called and told him Greenway had changed his mind and wanted "to turn the dogs over to Animal Control."² Hancock testified that he did not know what would happen to the dogs after they were permanently turned over to Animal Control.

Stockel testified that Greenway was not lucid when he first came into the emergency room, explaining that "[h]e would talk, and then he would go back out and then he would talk." According to Stockel, Greenway was concerned about his dogs and whether he had fed them, asked to speak to Hancock "for emotional support," and asked Hancock to call the...