ANDREWS, Judge.
Reina Andrade and Anabel Quintanilla appeal from the trial court's order dismissing their suit against Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation over Grady's closure of the outpatient dialysis clinic where they were patients. For the following reasons, we affirm.
After Grady notified Andrade and Quintanilla that it intended to close the clinic where they received three to four years of free outpatient dialysis treatment, they sued Grady on various grounds. The complaint alleged that Andrade and Quintanilla are indigent immigrants
The trial court granted Grady's motion pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-12(b)(6) to dismiss the suit for failure to state a claim.
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Stendahl v. Cobb County, 284 Ga. 525, 668 S.E.2d 723 (2008). Applying these standards, we find no merit to Andrade's and Quintanilla's claims that the trial court erred by dismissing the suit.
1. The complaint failed to state a claim for violation of the due process clause of the Georgia Constitution of 1983 (Article I, Section I, Paragraph I) which provides that, "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process of law." We need not address Grady's contentions that this claim fails because Andrade and Quintanilla lack standing in the absence of an allegation that they are Georgia citizens, and because closing the clinic was not governmental or state action of a type regulated by the due process clause.
Andrade and Quintanilla allege that closing the clinic where they received life-sustaining dialysis treatment free of charge was state action which placed their lives in jeopardy in violation of the substantive component of the Georgia Constitution's due process clause. Although the substantive component of the due process clause protects an interest in life, it "imposes upon the State affirmative duties of care and protection (including medical care) with respect to particular individuals . . . when the State by the affirmative exercise of its power so restrains an individual's liberty that it renders him unable to care for himself. . . ." (Punctuation omitted.) Murphy v. Bajjani, 282 Ga. 197, 202, 647 S.E.2d 54 (2007) (quoting DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Svcs., 489 U.S. 189, 198-200, 109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989)). For example, substantive due process "requires the State to provide adequate medical care to involuntarily-committed mental patients, and to suspects in police custody who were injured while being apprehended." (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Murphy, 282 Ga. at 202, 647 S.E.2d 54. By contrast, even if Andrade and Quintanilla depended for their lives upon the free dialysis treatment they voluntarily received from Grady for several years, they were not forced by any state-imposed restriction to become dependent, and they acquired no constitutional right to continue to receive
2. The complaint failed to state a claim that Grady, acting through its medical provider agents, violated a duty of care not to wrongfully abandon the medical treatment it provided to Andrade and Quintanilla. An allegation that a patient's medical treatment was abandoned at a critical stage because the medical treatment provider either failed to give reasonable notice or failed to arrange for another competent provider to continue treatment is a claim for medical negligence. King v. Zakaria, 280 Ga.App. 570, 574, 634 S.E.2d 444 (2006).
3. The complaint also failed to state a claim that Andrade and Quintanilla were entitled as third-party beneficiaries to sue for breach of the contract between Grady and another medical provider to provide free dialysis treatment for one year after the Grady clinic closed. In addressing this claim, the trial court properly considered the subject contract between Grady and Fresenius Medical Services, which Grady attached as an exhibit to its answer to the complaint.
The contract, entitled "Outpatient Dialysis Agreement," was effective September 1, 2009 (about a month prior to the date the complaint alleged that Grady closed its outpatient dialysis clinic) and covered a term of one year from the effective date. The contract provided in relevant part that "[Grady] has, at present, and will have, from time to time, in-patients who have End Stage Renal Disease (`ESRD Patients')," and that "[Grady] desires to discharge some ESRD Patients who still require ongoing chronic dialysis treatments." The contract referenced various outpatient dialysis centers established by Fresenius where Grady desired to arrange for "ESRD Patients" to have the option to receive outpatient dialysis services, and Fresenius agreed to provide outpatient dialysis services to "ESRD Patients." Under the terms of the contract, Grady and Fresenius agreed to
The general rule, as set forth in OCGA § 9-2-20(a), is that an action on a contract "shall be brought in the name of the party in whom the legal interest in the contract is vested...." An exception to the general rule is set forth in OCGA § 9-2-20(b), which provides that "The beneficiary of a contract made between other parties for his benefit may maintain an action against the promisor on the contract." For a third party to have standing under OCGA § 9-2-20(b) to bring an action on a contract between other
4. Because the underlying claims in the complaint were correctly dismissed, as set forth in Divisions 1, 2, and 3, supra, the trial court also correctly dismissed: (1) the associated claim for injunctive relief, and (2) the claim for class certification, as failing to state a basis upon which the requested relief could be granted. Turner v. Amsouth Mtg. Co., 212 Ga.App. 555, 442 S.E.2d 468 (1994); Dryvit Systems v. Stein, 256 Ga.App. 327, 329, 568 S.E.2d 569 (2002).
Judgment affirmed.
ELLINGTON, C.J., and DOYLE, J., concur.