Do Pharmacists Have A Duty To Warn In Texas?
By Kenneth R. Baker, B.S.Pharm., J.D. Vice President, General Counsel Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company In August 2000, an appellate court in the State of Texas handed down a pharmacy law decision in the case of Morgan v. Wal-Mart.[1] Until this case, Texas courts had not ruled on a duty to warn case, so this was a case of first impression in Texas. Most recent decisions in other states had consistently expanded the concept of pharmacist duty as including something more than the obligation to correctly fill a prescription as written by the physician. Examples of courts recognizing expanded professional duties for pharmacists are: the Tennessee Appellate Court[2] (duty of drug review and duty to warn) in 1990; the Indiana Supreme Court[3] (duty to monitor and duty to warn); the Arizona Court of Appeals[4] (duty to monitor and duty to warn) in 1994, and the Missouri Court of Appeals[5] (duty of drug review and duty to warn) in 1999. With this recent history, the Texas Court’s decision
