Shane Willingham alleged in his breach of contract complaint, “In the early morning of July 25, 2020, an Anderson Center employee located Plaintiff in the room of a female resident. On this and prior occasions the two had had sex. Their relationship should have been impossible had The Anderson Center followed its policies and procedures which
include mandatory resident room checks in fifteen-minute intervals and the locking of the doors between the boys’ and girls’ units. These procedures are designed specifically to prevent unsupervised co-mingling between the residents each of whom, presumably, like Plaintiff, suffer from varying degrees of psychological trauma and mental illness.”
In its Opinion filed on August 14, 2023, the Court of Appeals of Indiana (“Appellate Court”) stated: “The record reveals that Willingham’s complaint alleged that Anderson Center is a treatment facility for persons with addictions and mental illnesses and offers residential treatment programs. Willingham alleged that he “checked in for psychological treatment following his most recent suicide attempt,” he “had brought with him . . . a history of mental and emotional issues and previous suicide attempts,” he “was in need of The Anderson Center’s psychological services,” and the “trauma [he] suffered plagued him throughout his young life and contributed to his history of depression, pornography addiction, and suicidal thoughts and attempts.””
“Willingham essentially asserted that he was placed in a position of undue vulnerability due to the decisions and actions of Anderson Center employees in light of his mental and emotional issues, suicide attempts, psychological trauma, pornography addiction, and need for psychological services. In his complaint, Willingham alleged that he was damaged by Anderson Center’s negligence and claimed: “Anderson Center was well aware of [his] psychological history and owed him a duty of care in his treatment. It failed in that duty.””
The Appellate Court held: “In light of the allegations, we cannot say that the alleged actions by Anderson Center and its employees were demonstrably unrelated to the promotion of Willingham’s health or that there is not a causal connection between the alleged actions and the nature of the patient-health care provider relationship. Willingham’s breach of duty claim is, in substance, a medical malpractice claim, and accordingly the trial court did not err in granting Anderson Center’s motion to dismiss and dismissing the claim without prejudice. See Anonymous Hosp., 996 N.E.2d at 331-336 (observing the plaintiff was admitted to a hospital’s psychiatric ward for in-patient psychiatric care, at some point she was placed on monitoring where staff were to check on her every fifteen minutes, and she engaged in sexual activity with another patient; noting the plaintiff’s “participation in sexual acts . . . was not accomplished by force or threat of force,” “the gravamen of [her] complaint is that she was rendered incompetent to make an informed decision regarding sexual conduct because of psychotropic drugs prescribed for her,” and “[i]n other words, she was allegedly placed in a position of undue vulnerability because of decisions made by her treating physician, that is, which medications and what dosage were appropriate for her care while she was confined in close proximity to other patients”; and concluding the complaint fell within the purview of the MMA).”
Source Willingham v. Anderson Center, Opinion 23A-CT-459.
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