A patient's claim for compensation under the Medical Malpractice Act is not assignable. History: 1953 Comp., § 58-33-12, enacted by Laws 1976, ch. 2, § 12. Emergency clauses. — Laws 1976, ch. 2, § 32 contained an emergency clause and was approved February 27, 1976. The Medical Malpractice Act's nonassignability provision does not bar claims held by nonpatients. — Where petitioner, decedent's personal representative, sued Presbyterian Healthcare Services (Presbyterian) for medical malpractice, and where Presbyterian then sued respondents for indemnification, and where Presbyterian ultimately settled the medical malpractice lawsuit with petitioner and, as part of the settlement, assigned its indemnification claim to petitioner, and where respondents claimed that this section bars assignment of all malpractice claims, including indemnity claims, the district court did not err in determining that assignment of an indemnity claim is allowable under the Medical Malpractice Act, because the plain language of the MMA's nonassignability provision is clear and unambiguous and does not bar claims held by nonpatients, such as the indemnity cause of action at issue here. A patient's claim is a subset of malpractice claims and the legislature intended only that patients' claims, not all malpractice claims, be made unassignable. Leger v. Gerety , 2022-NMSC-007, rev'g 2019-NMCA-033, 444 P.3d 1036. Legislative intent. — The legislature intended the Medical Malpractice Act's (MMA), 41-5-1 to -29 NMSA 1978, requirements and restrictions to apply to all "malpractice claims" covered by the MMA and, accordingly, this section bars assignment of all malpractice claims for compensation covered by the MMA. Leger v. Gerety , 2019-NMCA-033, cert. granted. Indemnification claim barred from assignment. — In a wrongful death and medical malpractice action, where plaintiffs sued a hospital based on allegations of malpractice by a physician not employed by the hospital for which plaintiffs claimed the hospital was vicariously liable, and where the hospital filed a third-party complaint for equitable indemnification against the physician and his employer, which third-party complaint was later assigned to one of the plaintiffs as part of a settlement, the district court erred in denying the physician's motion to dismiss, because the hospital's assignment of its indemnification claim, which was predicated upon the allegation of professional negligence, was barred by the Medical Malpractice Act (MMA), 41-5-1 to -29 NMSA 1978, which prohibits the assignment of a patient's claim for compensation under the MMA. Leger v. Gerety , 2019-NMCA-033, cert. granted. Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 61 Am. Jur. 2d Physicians, Surgeons, and Other Healers §§ 170 to 174.
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