Court blocks judge from ordering medical test

An appeals court has blocked a circuit judge in southeast Missouri from imposing a medical test to determine whether and to what extent a plaintiff lost his senses of smell and taste after he was injured in a fall.

On Dec. 31, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District made permanent a preliminary writ of prohibition in the case of Brandt Headrick of Delta. He sued St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau in 2017 in the Circuit Court of Cape Girardeau County for medical negligence.

He alleged that he fell and struck his head as a result of the hospital’s negligence, and consequently suffered a total loss of his sense of smell and a partial loss of his sense of taste, according to the opinion, written by Judge Angela T. Quigless.

The hospital asked Circuit Judge Benjamin F. Lewis to order Headrick to undergo testing intended to determine whether and to what degree he lost his senses of smell and taste.

On Oct. 9, Lewis ordered Headrick to undergo “a test accomplished by swallowing or injection of a dye-like fluid in order to make an objective determination of [his] loss of smell and taste.”

In response, Headrick filed a petition with the Eastern District seeking a writ of prohibition asserting that Lewis had exceeded his authority in ordering the test. The Eastern District issued a preliminary writ.

In additional briefing and oral argument that followed, Lewis claimed he ordered the test under the authority conferred under Supreme Court Rule 60.01, which allows a judge to order a physical examination of a party in an action where that party’s physical condition is in controversy.

Headrick argued that Lewis failed to comply with the requirements of the rule listed in subsection (a)(3), which entail specifying the time, place, manner, conditions, scope of and identity of each person conducting the exam or evaluation.

The panel agreed with Headrick, finding Lewis exceeded his authority in failing to specify critical facts about the exam.

“This procedural safeguard is no mere technicality, as it protects Relator’s due process rights including his constitutional right to bodily integrity,” Quigless said, listing a number of U.S. Supreme Court cases in support of her point.

Judges James M. Dowd and Kurt S. Odenwald concurred.

Rachel Roman of Zevan Davidson Roman in St. Louis represented Headrick. She said she believes the ruling is correct.

“I think it was a good result, and there’s not a lot of law on it, so hopefully it will be helpful to other plaintiffs,” she said.

Lewis and the hospital were represented by James Cochrane III of Bradshaw, Steele, Cochrane, Berens & Billmeyer in Cape Girardeau. He did not responded to messages seeking comment.

The case is State ex rel. Headrick v. Lewis, ED108444.