Cizewski v. Mazaheri

10 Pa. D. & C.4th 165, 1991 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 309
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County
DecidedMarch 26, 1991
Docketno. 85-02012-05-2
StatusPublished

This text of 10 Pa. D. & C.4th 165 (Cizewski v. Mazaheri) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cizewski v. Mazaheri, 10 Pa. D. & C.4th 165, 1991 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 309 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1991).

Opinion

GARB, P.J.,

This is a medical malpractice suit. Plaintiffs assert that defendant doctors were guilty of negligence in performing a surgical procedure to rémove a kidney stone. Plaintiffs also assert that defendant hospital is likewise liable for the negligent conduct of defendant doctors in performing that operation. We granted summary judgment for the hospital from which plaintiffs have appealed.

Plaintiff Margaret A. Cizewski was a private patient of defendant Ahmed Mazaheri, M.D., and had been for a period of approximately 14 years prior to 1983. She had a history of left flank plain, microscopic hematoma, and urinary tract infections. In May 1983, she presented herself to the Doylestown Hospital complaining of the sudden onset of left flank pain, increasing frequency of urination and burning upon urination. She was examined, instructed to provide a urine culture, given a prescription, and instructed to contact her regular physician, Dr. Mazaheri, to follow up with her condition. Several days later, Dr. Mazaheri saw MrSi Cizewski in his office, and after conducting further examinations and tests, diagnosed a kidney stone and instructed her to enter the Doylestown Hospital on June 20, 1982 to have an intravenous urogram performed, puring the course of this hospitalization, it was diagnosed that plaintiff had a kidney stone in the mid portion of the left ureter. Dr. Mazaheri recommended that surgery should be performed for the removal of that stone.

[167]*167On June 21, 1983, following the urogram and cystoscopy, Dr. Mazaheri, assisted by defendant Dr. Akbari, performed a left ureteral lithotomy, and the stone was removed. It is alleged that plaintiff sustained an injury to her subcostal nerves, injury to her urinary tract, and permanent scarring in connection with the aforesaid surgery. Based upon the foregoing facts, we granted summary judgment in favor of the hospital.

It is now clear that general agency principles apply to hospitals and physicians. Tonsic v. Wagner, 458 Pa. 246, 329 A.2d 497 (1974)., In order to establish actual agency, it must be shown that an employer hospital controlled or had the right to control the physical conduct of the servant physician in the performance of his work. Smalich v. Westfall, 440 Pa. 409, 269 A.2d 476 (1970), and Schneider v. Albert Einstein Medical Center, 257 Pa. Super. 348, 390 A.2d 1271 (1978). A physician may be an agent of a hospital if his duties involve general administration of the hospital and giving treatment therein. See Brown v. Moore, 247 F.2d 711 (3d Cir. 1957), and Purcell v. Zimbelman, 18 Ariz. App. 75, 500 P.2d 335 (1972). Where there is conflicting evidence, it is for a jury to decide whether the requisite right of control exists to impose vicarious liability on the employer. Thomas v. Hutchinson, 442 Pa. 118, 275 A.2d 23 (1971).

As a general rule, a hospital is not liable for the negligence of independent contractor physicians. However, an exception to this general rule has been recognized where there is evidence that the physician is an ostensible agent of the hospital. In establishing such liability, the Superior Court in Capan v. Divine Providence Hospital, 287 Pa. Super. 364, 430 A.2d 647 (1980), adopted section 429 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts as an exception to the [168]*168general rule that an employer is not liable for torts committed by an independent contractor in his employ. See McDonough v. U.S. Steel Corporation, 228 Pa. Super. 268, 324 A.2d 542 (1974). Section 429 provides in relevant part as follows:

“One who employs an independent contractor to perform services for another which are accepted in the reasonable belief that the services are being rendered by the employer or by his servants, is subject to liability for physical harm caused by the negligence of the contractor in supplying such services, to the same extent as though the employer were supplying them himself or by his servants.”

Thus, section 429 has been denominated as the ostensible agency theoiy and has been applied to cases involving hospital liability for the negligence of independent contractor physicians. The courts in those cases which have so applied it, have concluded that despite the fact that a physician holds independent contractor status with respect to a hospital, he may nevertheless be an agent of the hospital with respect to the patient. Two factors contribute to this conclusion. The first is the changing role of the hospital in society which creates a likelihood that patients will look to the institution rather than to the individual physician for care, and the second exists where the hospital “holds out” the physician as its employee. A holding out occurs when the hospital acts or omits to act in some way which leads the patient to a reasonable belief he is being treated by the hospital or one of its employees. Capan v. Divine Providence Hospital, supra.

Therefore, there are two factors which are relevant to a finding of ostensible agency. The first is whether the patient looks to the institution rather than the individual physician for care; and the second is whether the hospital holds out the physi[169]*169cian as its employee. Simmons v. St. Clair Memorial Hospital, 332 Pa. Super. 444, 481 A.2d 870 (1984). See also, Thompson v. Nason Hospital, 370 Pa. Super. 115, 535 A.2d 1177 (1988). In that case, as in Simmons and Capan, the plaintiff was admitted to the hospital through the emergency room and was afforded treatment by a physician either on the staff of the hospital as an employee or a physician on call as in the Thompson case. It so happened that the doctor in the Thompson case happened to be the plaintiffs personal physician, but he began his treatment with respect to this admission because of the fact that he was on call in the hospital at the time she admitted herself. In each of these three cases, the plaintiffs entered the hospital voluntarily looking to the hospital for treatment as opposed to being admitted by their private physicians. As such, in each of these cases, the two prerequisites of ostensible agency were established. The patients looked to the hospital, at least initially, for treatment,, and the hospital afforded that (treatment through the use of either the hospital staff or physicians on call. The hospitals held themselves out as the purveyors or deliverers of the services rendered.

In the case before us, plaintiff was a longtime patient of Dr. Mazaheri who had been treating her for the very same condition for which surgery was performed in this case. He examined her in his office and decided upon at least the preliminary diagnosis.

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Related

TONSIC Et Vir. v. Wagner
329 A.2d 497 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
Thomas v. Hutchinson
275 A.2d 23 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
Simmons v. St. Clair Memorial Hospital
481 A.2d 870 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)
Thompson v. Nason Hospital
535 A.2d 1177 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1988)
Darling v. Charleston Community Memorial Hospital
211 N.E.2d 253 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1965)
SMALICH v. Westfall
269 A.2d 476 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1970)
Capan v. Divine Providence Hospital
430 A.2d 647 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1980)
Purcell v. Zimbelman
500 P.2d 335 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1972)
Schloendorff v. Society of the New York Hospital
105 N.E. 92 (New York Court of Appeals, 1914)
Bing v. Thunig
143 N.E.2d 3 (New York Court of Appeals, 1957)
McDonough v. United States Steel Corp.
324 A.2d 542 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
Brown v. Moore
247 F.2d 711 (Third Circuit, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
10 Pa. D. & C.4th 165, 1991 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cizewski-v-mazaheri-pactcomplbucks-1991.