Filter v. McCabe

38 Pa. D. & C.4th 139, 1998 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 180
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County
DecidedSeptember 10, 1998
Docketno. 96-8836
StatusPublished

This text of 38 Pa. D. & C.4th 139 (Filter v. McCabe) 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
Filter v. McCabe, 38 Pa. D. & C.4th 139, 1998 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 180 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1998).

Opinion

BIESTER, JR.

— On June 26, 1998, we sustained the defendant’s preliminary objections to the plaintiff’s third amended complaint and dismissed that third amended complaint with prejudice. The plaintiff has taken a timely appeal, and we write this opinion to explain our reasons for having sustained the preliminary objections and dismissing the complaint.

That complaint alleges that Mr. Filter, on December 29, 1995, was a guest in the defendant’s home, the two being neighbors, and that during the evening, the plaintiff and the defendant were alone together in the basement of Mr. McCabe’s residence. We know from earlier complaints that the parties had been drinking. Apparently, at that time, they were the only two people [141]*141who remained after the party. The complaint further alleges that the defendant was two feet away from the plaintiff when the defendant witnessed the plaintiff fall to the floor and hit his head extremely hard on the bare concrete, and that as a result of that fall, the plaintiff was rendered unconscious. The complaint further alleges that the defendant decided to come to the aid of the plaintiff and tried to wake the plaintiff by tapping him on the face, and when this was unsuccessful, the defendant got a glass of water and splashed it into Mr. Filter’s face.

Again, according to the complaint, after the water was splashed in Mr. Filter’s face, he opened his eyes, and the defendant, taking hold of the plaintiff’s arm, helped him up off the floor and aided him to a nearby couch. The defendant asked certain questions of the plaintiff to which the plaintiff was unable to respond, and the defendant was unable to communicate with the plaintiff at that time. The defendant then decided to take Mr. Filter upstairs and place him in an empty bed in the defendant’s home. The defendant then left him in the bed and went to sleep himself. The complaint further alleges that Mr. McCabe did not call an ambulance or call 911 or call the plaintiff’s wife or other family members in order to get medical assistance for Mr. Filter. The complaint further alleges that the fall caused a subdural hematoma to form in the plaintiff’s brain which gradually grew to the point of requiring emergency brain surgery later that day and resulting in permanent brain damage to the plaintiff.

The complaint further alleges that the defendant, by discontinuing his efforts with respect to the plaintiff, without notifying anyone of Mr. Filter’s need for medical assistance, thereby delayed necessary medical treatment for the plaintiff and thereby placed the plaintiff in a [142]*142worse position than when he originally came to Mr. Filter’s aid. The complaint nowhere alleges that the defendant was in any way aware of a subdural hematoma having begun to form in the plaintiff’s brain. Nowhere in the complaint is there any allegation specifying any special emergency medical training or medical training of any kind on the part of the defendant.

Apparently, and we know from previous complaints, the plaintiff later left the defendant’s home in the early morning on his own without notifying the defendant, and was in his own home when the defendant called at approximately 9:30 a.m. on December 30,1995, telling the plaintiff’s wife that he was worried about whether her husband had made it home. During that telephone call, the defendant did not inform the plaintiff’s wife that her husband had hit his head or had been rendered unconscious, or about the throwing of water on his face, or that he had helped him off the floor or placed him in bed. At 10:35 a.m., on December 30, 1995, the plaintiff’s wife received a second call from the defendant. On this call, the defendant elaborated on his further conversation to say that he was worried about her husband because Mr. Filter hit the back of his head really hard the night before. As a result of that second call, the plaintiff’s wife attempted to wake her husband but could not do so. She noted that her husband’s pupils were fixed and dilated, and she contacted 911.

The plaintiff relies upon section 323 and section 324 Restatement (Second) of Torts. Section 323 reads as follows:

“One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other’s person or things, is subject to liability to the other [143]*143for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to perform his undertaking, if (a) his failure to exercise such care increases the risk of such harm, or (b) the harm is suffered because of the other’s reliance upon the undertaking.”

Section 324 reads as follows:

“One who, being under no duty to do so, takes charge of another who is helpless adequately to aid or protect himself is subject to liability to the other for any bodily harm caused to him by (a) the failure of the actor to exercise reasonable care to secure the safety of the other while within the actor’s charge, or (b) the actor’s discontinuing his aid or protection, if by so doing he leaves the other in a worse position than when the actor took charge of him.”

Our appellate courts have addressed the underlying philosophy of these sections of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, and have approached them cautiously. An early consideration of section 324 occurred in Karavas v. Poulos, 381 Pa. 358, 113 A.2d 300 (1955). In that case, a patron in a bar slipped and fell in some fashion onto the floor, and the bartender came to his assistance. The bartender picked him up and placed him on a chair beside a table. The plaintiff testified that he suffered pain and cried, “I am hurt. Take me to the hospital.” Apparently, a son-in-law, pursuant to a telephone call received by his wife around 12 o’clock, went to the establishment and found his father-in-law sitting on a chair leaning on the table. The plaintiff was then taken by the son-in-law by truck to the son-in-law’s home. Sometime later that day, he was taken to a hospital where it was discovered his hip was fractured. It appears that the bartender, when he heard the noise of the fall, saw the plaintiff lying on the floor, and he picked up the plaintiff, who was “white as a [144]*144ghost,” and sat him on a chair. A waitress called the daughter who said someone would come for her father. The bartender then resumed his customary duties. Inter alia, the plaintiff relied upon section 324 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, arguing that although the bartender had no duty to come to his aid, having volunteered assistance, he failed to exercise the reasonable care required in administering such assistance.

Considering section 324, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, after noting that the Good Samaritan incurs a responsibility avoided by those who pass by on the other side, stated,

“If accepted as a correct statement of the law, it should not be extended in its application and we do not think the rule pronounced would permit the imposition of liability under the circumstances here presented.”

The Supreme Court further noted that it was not discovered that the plaintiff had suffered a fracture of his hip until he was hospitalized the next day.

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Related

Glick v. Martin and Mohler, Inc.
535 A.2d 626 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1987)
Karavas v. Poulos
113 A.2d 300 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1955)
Cantwell v. Allegheny County
483 A.2d 1350 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
38 Pa. D. & C.4th 139, 1998 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/filter-v-mccabe-pactcomplbucks-1998.