Mulhern v. Catholic Health Initiatives

Elizabeth Von Linden was a business executive who had a long history of untreated depression. Von Linden attempted suicide once while she was in college and again around 20 years later. Von Linden’s second suicide attempt prompted her husband, Todd Mulhern (plaintiff), to take her to the emergency room at Catholic Health Initiatives (Mercy) (defendant), which did business as Mercy Medical Center. Von Linden was discharged after a brief stay in the psychiatric ward. About two weeks after Von Linden’s discharge, she had an outpatient visit with a psychiatrist from Mercy, and about one week later, she hanged herself at home. Mulhern filed a wrongful-death action as an individual and on behalf of his wife’s estate (plaintiff), asserting that Mercy’s negligence proximately caused his wife’s death. Mercy asserted Von Linden’s comparative negligence as an affirmative defense, arguing that Von Linden’s behavior was the proximate cause of her death. The jury received a jury instruction on comparative fault, and the verdict form allowed the jury to apportion fault to Von Linden. In comparing Von Linden’s negligence with Mercy’s, a jury found that Von Linden was 90 percent at fault and Mercy was 10 percent at fault. Because Von Linden’s fault was allocated at greater than 50 percent, a judgment was entered in Mercy’s favor by a district court. Mulhern moved unsuccessfully for a new trial. Mulhern appealed, raising several arguments, including that under Iowa Code chapter 668, the intentional act of suicide could not be regarded as negligent and could not be compared to negligent conduct by Mercy because the statute did not include intentional torts in its definition of fault. In the relevant part, chapter 668 provided the following definition of fault: an act or multiple acts or omissions that are reckless or negligent in any way toward the actor. Thus, the question before the Iowa Supreme Court was whether suicide qualified as a negligent act or omission under chapter 668 and whether the affirmative defense of comparative fault could be based on a plaintiff’s suicide.