The Supreme Court of the State of Oregon stated in its En Banc decision dated December 11, 2025: “The question in this case is whether medical professionals, alleged to have negligently prescribed and distributed drugs to a patient, may be liable for allegedly foreseeable physical injuries that the patient subsequently caused to another person.
Defendants are medical providers and a pharmacy who, according to plaintiff, negligently prescribed and dispensed drugs to a patient who had been abusing the drugs. That patient later drove a vehicle while impaired, veered across the center lane, and struck and killed a cyclist (Stone). Plaintiff, the personal representative of Stone’s estate, alleges that Stone’s death was the foreseeable result of defendants’ negligence. Defendants moved to dismiss, arguing that plaintiff could not state a claim without a special relationship with defendants, which plaintiff lacked. The trial court agreed and dismissed plaintiff’s claims against defendants, but the Court of Appeals reversed.
On review of that decision, we agree with the Court of Appeals that plaintiff’s allegations state a claim for liability in negligence. The longstanding rule of common-law negligence in Oregon is that “liability for harm actually resulting from [a] defendant’s conduct depends on whether that conduct unreasonably created a foreseeable risk to a protected interest of the kind of harm that befell the plaintiff,” which is what plaintiff has alleged in this case. Fazzolari v. Portland School Dist. No. 1J, 303 Or 1, 17, 734 P2d 1326 (1987). Plaintiff’s allegations thus state a claim for ordinary negligence liability that does not depend on the existence of a special relationship between a defendant and the injured party.
Defendants’ contention that medical professionals, nevertheless, should be liable for harm only to those with whom they have a professional relationship effectively seeks an exception to cut off ordinary negligence liability for negligent medical professionals who foreseeably cause harm to a nonpatient. We decline to create such an exception. Concern
that it might be unfair to hold medical professionals liable for harm caused to nonpatients is addressed by the requirements that a medical professional’s liability for ordinary negligence is limited to physical harm resulting from conduct in treating a patient that in fact unreasonably creates a foreseeable risk of harm to nonpatients. A medical professional whose conduct is reasonable in light of the standard of care applicable to the treatment of patients will not be liable in negligence for harm later caused by that patient. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the trial court.”
Stone v. Witt, 374 Or 524 (2025.
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