MOUNT VERNON – Traveling from Chester to St. Louis - through St. Clair County - didn’t qualify Randolph County residents Randall and Samantha Draves as St. Clair County plaintiffs, Fifth District appellate judges ruled on May 2.
The appellate court affirmed St. Clair County Circuit Judge Heinz Rudolf, who found his court an improper venue for a malpractice complaint against Memorial Hospital of Chester.
Randolph County owns and operates the hospital.
Justice John Barberis wrote, “We simply cannot conclude that plaintiffs’ act of driving through St. Clair County can be considered an integral part of her cause of action.”
He found no evidence that Samantha’s condition deteriorated in such a way that she experienced injury in St. Clair County.
Justices Thomas Welch and Judy Cates concurred.
Nathaniel Brown of Weilmuenster and Keck in Belleville filed the complaint in 2021, naming physicians James Thomas and Abiodun Sangoseni as defendants, along with the hospital.
Brown claimed defendants failed to diagnose and treat Samantha’s condition and failed to refer her to a specialist.
He claimed she sought emergency services from Dec. 29, 2020, to Jan. 4, 2021.
He added that on Jan. 6, 2021, her primary physician advised Randall to transport her to Barnes Jewish Hospital.
Brown claimed physicians there diagnosed her condition as a parapharyngeal abscess and she underwent multiple surgeries to her neck and chest.
He claimed she experienced disability, loss of normal life, disfigurement, risk of future injury, pain, and suffering.
Defendants moved for transfer to Randolph County and Brown responded that Samantha continued to be exposed to an infectious condition on the way to St. Louis.
He stated her injury was active, ongoing, and cumulative.
Memorial Hospital replied that, “a drive through a county where no treatment or care was provided does not establish a proper venue.”
Thomas and Sangoseni claimed the decision to drive through St. Clair County was unilateral and unilateral action can’t establish venue.
At a hearing last August, hospital counsel Dede Zupanci of Hepler Broom in Edwardsville said the trip took about 90 minutes and they passed through Monroe and St. Clair counties.
She said they drove through St. Clair County for about 20 minutes.
Brown argued that the infection started in Randolph County and continued until doctors at Barnes Jewish brought it under control.
He said the focus of the inquiry was where Samantha suffered injury.
He said venue wasn’t predicated on the presence of a defendant or negligent care.
Rudolf granted transfer, finding the action stemmed from treatment at Memorial Hospital and not from the drive through St. Clair County.
On appeal, Barberis and his colleagues found the record supported Rudolf’s factual finding that the act of driving from Chester to St. Louis was unilateral.
Barberis wrote that defendants in no way acted in St. Clair County and their action of driving through the county did not give rise to the malpractice action.
Kenneth Burke and Shane Chapman of Brown and James in Belleville represent Thomas and Sangoseni.