Whitley v. Louisiana
Annotate this CaseCentral to this case was the issue of whether it is sufficient to serve only the head of a state agency or to also serve the attorney general and the office of risk management when a tort action is brought against the agency. In May 2003, Plaintiff Regina Whitley was five months pregnant when she was in an automobile accident. In July 2003, she delivered a stillborn infant. She filed a medical malpractice suit against the state hospital that treated her immediately following the accident. At the time of filing, Plaintiff requested service of process only on the hospital's chairman. Two and a half years later, the attorney general and the office of risk management received faxed-copies of the complaint. The hospital moved to dismiss, citing insufficiency of service of process. After a hearing, the trial court denied the hospital's motion to dismiss. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that the initial service on only the hospital was sufficient and that the subsequent service on the attorney general and office of risk management cured the hospital's exception of insufficiency of service. The Court affirmed the lower courts' decisions.
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