Massey

This is a negligence action against a nurse and, vicariously, the hospital that employed the nurse. Plaintiff Carl R. Massey was a postoperative patient who sustained injury after falling from a walker. The nurse had placed plaintiff on the walker and then left him unattended.

We conclude that the question of the nurse’s alleged negligence for the fall poses a question of common knowledge, and therefore does not require expert opinion testimony. Consequently, we shall reverse that part of the trial court’s judgment that concluded otherwise and that dismissed the negligence action after plaintiff made his opening statement. We shall affirm that part of the judgment that denied plaintiff’s attempt to amend his complaint to add causes of action for battery, fraud and elder abuse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Besides concluding that the issue of the nurse’s alleged negligence regarding plaintiff’s fall required expert opinion testimony, the trial court found plaintiff’s expert unqualified on this issue. With plaintiff lacking the required expert, defendants Ken O’Bar, a registered nurse, and his employer, Mercy Medical Center Redding (hereafter O’Bar or Nurse O’Bar…