Merce v. Greenwood

EMTALA

Merce v. Greenwood, No. 2:04-CV-00610 PGC (D. Utah Dec. 17, 2004)

A
patient suffered injuries soon after being treated and discharged from a hospital’s
emergency room. Over two years later, he brought a lawsuit against two of
the treating physicians for violations of EMTALA’s anti-dumping provisions.
The United States District Court for the District of Utah granted the physicians’
motions to dismiss, finding that EMTALA’s two-year statute of limitations
period is not altered by provisions of state law such as pre-litigation screening
requirements. Also, the court noted that the statute begins to run on the
date of the violation, not when the violation is discovered. The court also
observed that, "oddly,
neither [physician] has raised a straightforward challenge to plaintiffs’ EMTALA
claim against him: namely, that under the plain language of the Act, only hospitals
can be sued for violations."