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Healthcare Centers of Texas12/12/2002
d "substantial" is used to denote the fact that the defendant's conduct has such an effect in producing the harm as to lead reasonable people to regard it as a cause, in which there lurks the idea of responsibility, rather than in the so-called "philosophic sense," which includes every one of the great number of events without which any happening would not have occurred. Lear Siegler, Inc. v. Perez, 819 S.W.2d 470, 472 (Tex. 1991).
The Supreme Court considered the parameters of legal causation in Bell v. Campbell, 434 S.W.2d 117 (Tex. 1968). In Bell, two cars collided, and a trailer attached to one of them disengaged and overturned in the opposite lane. A number of people gathered, and three of them were attempting to move the trailer when they were struck by another vehicle. Id. at 119. The court held that the parties involved in the first accident did not proximately cause plaintiffs' injuries, reasoning:
All acts and omissions charged against respondents had run their course and were complete. Their negligence did not actively contribute in any way to the injuries involved in this suit. It simply created a condition which attracted [the plaintiffs] to the scene, where they were injured by a third party.
Id. at 122.
Healthcare, citing Doe v. Boys Clubs of Greater Dallas , Inc., 907 S.W.2d 472 (Tex. 1995), contends the harm suffered by Mrs. Underwood and Mrs. Rigby was not proximately caused by its negligence in failing to protect Mrs. Underwood from Jones. In Doe, a volunteer working for the Boys Club sexually molested three boys who were members of the Boys Club. Id. at 475. The boys then sued the Boys Club, claiming the failure to investigate its volunteers proximately caused the boys' damages. Id. at 476. In Doe, the volunteer was performing community service as part of a sentence for a conviction of driving while intoxicated. Id. at 475. The volunteer also had one other DWI conviction. Id. The court held the prior DWI convictions did not indicate criminal conduct in any way akin to sexual assault of young boys. Id. at 478. Therefore, if the Boys Club had investigated the volunteer, its investigation would not have caused the club to reasonably anticipate his subsequent sexual assaults of the boys. Id.
In this case, Healthcare's negligence was both foreseeable and the cause in fact of Mrs. Underwood's and Mrs. Rigby's damages. Almost every witness testified that it was foreseeable that Jones could harm one of the elderly female residents. Jones's history at Anahuac, San Jacinto Hospital, and LaPorte indicated he displayed sexually deviant behavior and posed a threat to elderly disabled residents. Further, Healthcare's negligence was a substantial factor in bringing about the harm to Mrs. Underwood and Mrs. Rigby. Healthcare argues that it simply created a condition that made the assault possible; therefore, the causal link is too attenuated to show cause in fact. This is not a case, however, where all forces involved in the original act of negligence had come to rest. Nor is this a case, such as Doe, in which the defendant could not have known the propensity of the actor had it investigated him. Here, Jones's prior conduct was indicative of his future conduct and the original act of Healthcare's negligence had not come to rest before the assault on Mrs. Underwood. Considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we find the evidence is legally sufficient to show Healthcare's negligence was a substantial factor in bringing about the injury. After considering all the evidence both in support of and contrary to the jury's finding of proximate cause, we find the evidence is not so weak that the finding is clearly wrong and manifestly unj
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