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Hyatt v. Village House Convalescent Home8/24/2005
The plaintiff, Richard Hyatt, appeals from a Superior Court judgment in favor of the defendant, Norman Rudolph, M.D., which judgment was entered after the Superior Court granted Dr. Rudolph's Super.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the plaintiff's complaint to the extent that it related to him. This case came before the Supreme Court for oral argument on March 1, 2005, pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in this appeal should not be summarily decided. After hearing the arguments of counsel and examining the memoranda submitted by the parties, we are of the opinion that cause has not been shown and that this case should be summarily decided.
Facts and Travel
Since this is an appeal from the granting of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, we rely on the allegations set forth in plaintiff's complaint and we accept them as true at this juncture.
On August 15, 2002, plaintiff was employed as a registered nurse at Village House Convalescent Home, Inc. (Village House). On that evening, a fellow nurse, Geraldine Gerardi, asked plaintiff to assist her with an uncooperative patient. (The patient was refusing to allow the nurse to remove a lidoderm patch.) The plaintiff alleges that he suggested that nurse Gerardi contact defendant Dr. Rudolph, the medical director of Village House, to ask how they should deal with the patient. Nurse Gerardi spoke with Dr. Rudolph, who instructed her to contact the pharmacist to obtain information about the lidoderm patch. The plaintiff alleges that nurse Gerardi contacted the pharmacist and was told to remove the patch as soon as possible. Upon reading some pharmaceutical information pertaining to the patch, plaintiff helped nurse Gerardi remove the patch. According to the complaint, Village House "by and through its agents and/or servants" reported the patch incident to the Board of Nursing, which ultimately found that plaintiff had not engaged in unprofessional conduct.
The plaintiff was later terminated from his position at Village House allegedly as a result of the August 15, 2002 incident and was subsequently unable to secure employment at another nursing facility. On July 15, 2003, plaintiff filed a complaint in the Superior Court for Newport County, naming as defendants Village House, Dr. Rudolph, and three other people. The complaint consisted of five counts -- viz., defamation (count 1), breach of contract (count 2), wrongful termination (count 3), intentional interference with contract and prospective economic relations (count 4), and malicious institution of civil proceedings (count 5).
On August 26, 2003, defendant Dr. Rudolph filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff's complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), contending that plaintiff had failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The defendant argued that his involvement in the case, according to the factual allegations in plaintiff's complaint, was limited to his receipt of a phone call from nurse Gerardi and his suggestion that she speak to the pharmacist. The motion justice concluded that plaintiff's complaint did not contain any factual allegations to support any cause of action against Dr. Rudolph, and therefore, the motion justice dismissed plaintiff's complaint as it pertained to Dr. Rudolph.
Standard of Review
We need not comment at the present juncture on the substance of plaintiff's complaint; Rule 12(b)(6) does not deal with the likelihood of success on the merits, but rather with the viability of a plaintiff's bare-bones allegations and claims as they are set forth in the complaint.
Accordingly, we shall analyze each of the counts in plaintiff's complain
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