Park

BACKGROUND

Park’s first amended complaint, filed June 11, 2013, alleges that Park’s 74-year- old mother, Byung Soon Park, died at the Hospital on December 26, 2011 while under the care of Dr. Nazarian and other defendants, two days after Dr. Nazarian performed an open cholecystectomy. As against the Hospital and Dr. Nazarian, the complaint alleged causes of action for professional negligence causing wrongful death, fraud (misrepresentation), fraud (concealment), failure to obtain informed consent, elder abuse, unfair business practices, and survivor’s claim. The informed consent cause of action alleged that neither Byung Soon Park nor Park gave their informed consent to the

2 surgery, and they would not have agreed to it if they had been fully informed of the results, risks of, and alternatives to the procedure. The Hospital and Dr. Nazarian filed demurrers to all the counts except the professional negligence and survivor’s claim. Dr. Nazarian argued that the informed consent cause of action was “duplicative of, and therefore subsumed by” the professional negligence cause of action. The Hospital argued that it had no duty to obtain a patient’s informed consent, and Dr. Nazarian…