JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - Those who cause traffic accidents could be held liable when others involved overdose on pain medication prescribed for their injuries.
The Mississippi Supreme Court made that ruling on Feb. 22 in a wrongful death lawsuit against a trucking company and another individual who are blamed for a man's liver failure tied to acetaminophen.
Marcus Smith died after a 2013 multi-vehicle accident in Jackson County from liver problems caused by Lortab, a mixture of hydrocodone and acetaminophen. It is possible he was misusing the pills, and it's up to a jury to decide whether it was foreseeable for the trucking company and other driver that a wreck would cause pain medication which would cause side effects.
The ruling overturns a trial court decision that found Smith's health problems were not foreseeable to other motorists like the defendants. What transpired was "an unusual, improbable or extraordinary occurrence," Judge Robert Krebs ruled in 2021.
But the Court of Appeals overruled his entry of summary judgment, and the Supreme Court did too in an opinion authored by Justice Robert Chamberlin.
"(The) dissents appear to blur the line between a foreseeable legal duty and foreseeable causation," Chamberlin wrote. "Foreseeability, as relates to duty, is a determination as to whether the plaintiff is a reasonably foreseeable plaintiff.
"This is a legal question. There can be no more foreseeable a legal duty than the one owed by drivers to other drivers. After it is determined that the plaintiff is a reasonably foreseeable plaintiff, the analysis turns to the question of whether the breach of duty is the cause of plaintiff's injuries. This is a fact question for the jury."
So, the case will head toward a trial in its original court. It began when Smith suffered a cervical fracture and multiple rib fractures while driving a tractor-trailer. He was treated by a hospital and released the same day with a prescription to take two Lortab pills every six hours, directions his wife took to heart.
But she thinks he was sneaking extras from the 56-pill bottle, leading to an emergency situation on April 8, 2013, in which he experienced an impaired mental condition and combativeness. The pill bottle was empty.
At a hospital, he was diagnosed with acute liver failure due to acetaminophen toxicity but was still given 120 more Lortabs when he was discharged. He died Five months later from liver failure as a result of acetaminophen ingestion.
All defendants settled except Werner Enterprises, which owned another tractor-trailer in the wreck, and another driver's estate. When they were granted summary judgment on the wrongful death claim, it ended the case until the appellate courts revived it.
Those courts feel it is up to a jury to decide whether Smith misused the pills and whether his death from their side effects was foreseeable to someone driving a car.
The issue split the Supreme Court 5-4, with three justices filing dissenting opinions. Justice James Maxwell started by noting Smith did not die in the crash but from a medical condition six months later.
"Though it is undisputed Tylenol killed Marcus, the majority finds the trucking company of one driver and the estate of another driver must face trial and liability, not for Marcus' pre-death injuries caused by the wreck, but for Marcus' wrongful death," Maxwell wrote.
"I respectfully disagree... The majority suggests a driver should reasonably foresee traffic accidents cause injury and pain, pain requires pain medication, and pain medication may be not only taken - but also abused and over-ingested - leading to eventual liver failure and death. But foreseeability is different than causation."