Cooper v. Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Inc.

272 N.E.2d 97, 27 Ohio St. 2d 242, 56 Ohio Op. 2d 146, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 427
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 21, 1971
DocketNo. 70-459
StatusPublished
Cited by185 cases

This text of 272 N.E.2d 97 (Cooper v. Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooper v. Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Inc., 272 N.E.2d 97, 27 Ohio St. 2d 242, 56 Ohio Op. 2d 146, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 427 (Ohio 1971).

Opinion

Duítcan, J.

Reasonable minds could arrive at differing conclusions as to whether Dr. Hansen was negligent in rendering professional medical services to plaintiff’s decedent, and there is sufficient evidence for the submission of that issue to the jury. There is ample evidence in the record supportive of the trial judge’s findings of fact that Dr. Hansen did not take the vital signs, that they were not taken in his presence, and that he had no knowledge of what they were, if taken. Those findings, considered together with other expert testimony, provide a basis from which a [250]*250jury could properly determine that Dr. Hansen’s conduct regarding Theodore Cooper did not satisfy the standard that a physician in the community should observe under like circumstances.

The more problematic issue of proximate cause looms from these facts as a reminder of past difficulties this court has experienced with this issue in malpractice cases.

It has been established, and we now reaffirm the principle that: “Even though there is evidence of malpractice sufficient for submission to the jury on that issue, a verdict must be directed in favor of the defendant where there is no evidence adduced which would give rise to a reasonable inference that the defendant’s acts of malpractice was the direct and proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff. ’ ’ Paragraph two of the syllabus in Kuhn v. Banker (1938), 133 Ohio St. 304.

In his opinion in Kuhn, Judge Williams, at page 315, stated that ‘ ‘ the patient cannot recover damages unless the act of malpractice is the direct and proximate cause of injury. Loss of chance of recovery, standing alone, is not an injury from which damages will flow.” In so stating, Judge Williams disagreed with, and relegates to obiter dictum, the conflicting view expressed in Craig v. Chambers (1867), 17 Ohio St. 254, 261, that “any want of the proper degree of skill or care which diminishes the chances of a patient’s recovery * * * would, in a legal sense, constitute injury.”

In Hicks v. United States (C. C. A. 4, 1966), 368 F. 2d 626, construing Virginia law, it is expressed, at page 632:

“When a defendant’s negligent action or inaction has effectively terminated a person’s chance of survival, it does not lie in the defendant’s mouth to raise conjectures as to the measure of the chances that he has put beyond the possibility of realization. If there was any substantial possibility of survival and the defendant has destroyed it, he is answerable. Rarely is it possible to demonstrate to an absolute certainty what would have happened in circumstances that the wrongdoer did not allow to come to [251]*251pass. The law does not in the existing circumstances.- require the plaintiff to show to a certainty that the patient would have lived had she been hospitalized and operated on promptly.”

Although the words “substantial possibility” are employed as articulating a standard of proof, the facts in Hichs reveal that plaintiffs’ evidence satisfied a much higher standard of proof. The court also stated, at page 632:

“The government further contends that even if negligence is established, there was no proof that the erroneous diagnosis and treatment was the proximate cause of the death, asserting that even if surgery had been performed immediately, it is mere speculation to say that it would have been successful. The government’s contention, however, is unsupported by the record. Both of plaintiff’s experts testified categorically that if operated on promptly, Mrs. Greitens would have survived, and this is nowhere contradicted by the government expert.” (Emphasis added.)

A rule, which would permit a plaintiff to establish a jury question on the issue of proximate cause upon a showing of a “substantial possibility” of survival, in our judgment, suffers the same infirmity as a rule which would permit proof of a “chance of recovery” to be sufficient. While the substantial possibility concept appears to connote a weightier burden than the chance of recovery idea, both derogate well-established and valuable proximate cause considerations. Traditional proximate cause standards require that the trier of the facts, at a minimum, must be provided with evidence that a result was more likely than not to have been caused by an act, in the absence of any intervening cause.

Lesser standards of proof are understandably attractive in malpractice cases where physical well being, and life itself, are the subject of litigation. The strong intuitive sense of humanity tends to emotionally direct us toward a conclusion that in an action for wrongful death an in[252]*252jured person should be compensated for the loss of any chance for survival, regardless of its remoteness. However, we have trepidations that such a rule would be so loose that it would produce more injustice than justice. Even though there exists authority for a rule allowing recovery based upon proof of causation by evidence not meeting the standard of probability, we are not persuaded by their logic. See Craig v. Chambers, supra (17 Ohio St. 254); Hicks v. United States, supra (368 F. 2d 626); Neal v. Walker (1968), 426 S. W. 2d 476; Rogers v. Kee (1912), 171 Mich. 551, 137 N. W. 260, quoting from Craig v. Chambers, supra; Burk v. Foster (1902), 114 Ky. 20, 69 S. W. 1096. The following authorities appear to require the establishment of proximate cause by evidence of probability: Harvey v. Silber (1942), 300 Mich. 510, 2 N. W. 2d 483; Schuler v. Berger (1967), 275 F. Supp. 120; Walden v. Jones (Ky. 1969), 439 S. W. 2d 571 (distinguishing Neal v. Walker, supra); Connellan v. Coffey (1936), 122 Conn. 136, 187 A. 901.

We consider the better rule to be that in order to comport with the standard of proof of proximate cause, plaintiff in a malpractice case must prove that defendant’s negligence, in probability, proximately caused the death.

In this case, we are convinced that in order for the jury question to be presented, giving plaintiff’s evidence, and inferences reasonably deductible therefrom its most favorable consideration and indulgence, there must be sufficient evidence that Dr. Hansen’s negligence denied plaintiff’s decedent the probability of survival. Appellant has not produced such evidence.

Dr. Cleveland, plaintiff’s witness stated that “there is no possible way for a physician or anyone else to ascertain with any degree of certainty whether with medical intervention, the individual would have survived or died.” Dr. DeJong stated that, if untreated, the condition from which Theodore Cooper died had practically a 100% mortality rate without surgery for patients with similar injuries as decedents. He then stated that “there certainly is a chance and I can’t say exactly what — maybe some [253]*253place around 50% — that he would survive with surgery.” (Emphasis added.)

Dr. Cleveland’s opinion furnishes no suggestion of a probability of survival; Dr. DeJong’s opinion bears closer examination. Probability is most often defined as that which is more likely than not. See Clark v. Welch (C. C. A. 1, 1944), 140 F. 2d 271, 273; In re Solomon’s Estate (1936), 159 Misc. 379, 384, 287 N. Y. Supp. 814, Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
272 N.E.2d 97, 27 Ohio St. 2d 242, 56 Ohio Op. 2d 146, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-v-sisters-of-charity-of-cincinnati-inc-ohio-1971.