Woods v. State ex rel. Mont. State Hosp. (Summary)

DUTY TO WARN

Woods v. State ex rel. Mont. State Hosp., No. DA 14-0054 (Mont. Jan. 13, 2015)

The Supreme Court of Montana affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a state hospital on a “failure to warn” claim by the estate of a woman who was shot to death by a former mental patient of the hospital. The court held that no actual threat of violence was made to trigger a mental health professional’s statutory duty to warn. A patient with a history of self-harm was involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital after he was found unconscious in his house due to heavy drinking and ingesting pain medication. During a counseling session with a mental health professional of the hospital, the patient admitted to having an alcohol dependency problem. The patient said that when he was intoxicated he would become aggressive towards his then girlfriend. After continued sessions over a two-week period, the mental health professional observed that the patient had realized the seriousness of his alcohol problem and was planning to follow through with outpatient treatment. The patient was released. Four months later, at a bar, he saw his ex-girlfriend with a male companion. The patient followed the two as they left. Outside, the patient assaulted the male companion, and fired multiple gunshots at his ex-girlfriend’s vehicle, killing her. The patient then shot himself. Plaintiff, patient’s ex-girlfriend’s estate, brought suit against the hospital claiming that the hospital failed to warn the patient’s ex-girlfriend of the risk of violent behavior by the patient pursuant to a state statute.

The court affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of the claim, holding that there was no actual threat of physical violence by specific means to trigger the statutory duty to warn. The court explained that the patient must have made a specific expression or gesture against the ex-girlfriend to trigger the duty to warn. The fact that the patient may have presented a potential danger to the ex-girlfriend under certain circumstances, including his continued alcohol abuse and the end of their intimate relationship, was not sufficient, in the court’s opinion, to trigger a mental health professional’s statutory duty to warn.