Harrison v. St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center of Northern Oklahoma, Inc.

1995 OK CIV APP 61, 904 P.2d 146, 66 O.B.A.J. 3203, 1995 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 103, 1995 WL 601381
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 18, 1995
DocketNo. 83671
StatusPublished

This text of 1995 OK CIV APP 61 (Harrison v. St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center of Northern Oklahoma, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harrison v. St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center of Northern Oklahoma, Inc., 1995 OK CIV APP 61, 904 P.2d 146, 66 O.B.A.J. 3203, 1995 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 103, 1995 WL 601381 (Okla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JOPLIN, Judge:

Appellant J.D. Harrison (Harrison) seeks review of the trial court’s order denying his motion for new trial after judgment on jury verdict for Appellee St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center of Northern Oklahoma, Inc. (Hospital) in Harrison’s negligence action. In this appeal, Harrison asserts the trial court erred in instructing the jury. We agree, and reverse.

While a patient at Hospital, Harrison slipped and fell returning to his hospital bed from the bathroom of his room where he had just taken a shower. Harrison alleged that unknown to him, a Hospital employee mopped the floor of Harrison’s room while he was in the bathroom, leaving the floor wet. Hospital defended the action alleging contributory negligence by Harrison in taking a shower in violation of orders to the contrary [148]*148and negligence of Harrison’s Wife and Nephew who had attempted to dry the floor. The jury returned a verdict apportioning 76% fault to Harrison and 24% to Hospital, and the trial court entered judgment accordingly. Harrison moved for new trial, which the trial court denied, and Harrison appeals to this court.1

In his three propositions of error, Harrison challenges the trial court’s instructions to the jury. In this regard, Oklahoma law imposes a duty on the trial court to instruct upon the decisive issues of the ease as supported by the pleadings and evidence introduced. See, e.g., Bradley Chevrolet, Inc. v. Goodson, 450 P.2d 500 (Okla.1976); Vogel v. Rushing, 202 Okla. 277, 212 P.2d 665 (1949). The tests on review of instructions given or refused are whether there is a probability that the jurors were misled and thereby reached a different conclusion than they would have reached but for the questioned instruction, or there was excluded from jury consideration a proper issue in the ease. Woodall v. Chandler Material Co., 716 P.2d 652, 654 (Okla.1986) (different conclusion); VanWart v. Cook, 557 P.2d 1161 (Okla.App.1976) (different result or exclusion of proper issue).

Thus, a judgment will not be disturbed on appeal for allegedly erroneous instructions where the instructions given as a whole fairly present the law applicable to the issues raised by the pleadings and the evidence. Kimery v. Public Svc. Co. of Okla., 622 P.2d 1066, 1072 (Okla.1980). However, in their totality, jury instructions must be consistent and harmonious, “and where two instructions are given containing inconsistent or conflicting propositions, tending to confuse the jury, the cause will be reversed for the reason that the court is unable to determine which instruction the jury followed and which they ignored. (Citation omitted.)” City of Tulsa v. Pearson, 277 P.2d 135, 137 (Okla.1954) (where trial court gives conflicting instructions on sufficiency of notice, i.e., actual or constructive, to hold city hable, held, judgment reversed); accord, City of Ardmore v. Hendrix, 348 P.2d 497 (Okla.1960) (where trial court gives conflicting instructions on appropriate duties of care, held, judgment reversed).

Substantively, Oklahoma law recognizes that the duty owed by a possessor of property to entrants thereon varies dependent on the status of the entrant. Sutherland v. Saint Francis Hospital, Inc., 595 P.2d 780, 781 (Okla.1979). The duty of a hospital to its patients is different and much higher than the duty of a possessor of property to entrants thereon:

[A] hospital, [as] possessor [of property, is] not legally bound to protect its invitee from all foreseeable risk of harm to be encountered upon the premises. Its duty as invitor extends no further than to use ordinary care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.
[[Image here]]
... To [a patient, however] the degree of care the hospital owes is much higher. It is commensurate and consistent with their physical or mental ability.

Sutherland, 595 P.2d at 783-784. See also, Eversole v. Oklahoma Hospital Founders, 818 P.2d 456 (Okla.1991) (hospital must exercise ordinary care and attention for patient in proportion to patient’s mental and physical condition); Hillcrest Medical Center v. Wier, 373 P.2d 45 (Okla.1962) (hospital has overriding duty to exercise ordinary care to protect patient based on patient’s physical and mental condition); Tulsa Hospital Association v. Juby, 73 Okla. 243, 175 P. 519 (1918) (hospital must exercise ordinary care in furnishing patient a suitable and safe place); Pierce v. Mercy Health Center, Inc., 847 P.2d 822 (Okla.App.1992) (hospital’s duty of care to patient is not the same as the duty owed to an invitee).

In his first proposition, Harrison asserts the trial court misinstructed on the duty of a hospital to its patients, arguing that Hospital must “exercise ordinary care in furnishing [its patients] a suitable and safe [149]*149place.” Tulsa Hospital Association, 175 P. at 523. So, says Harrison, the trial court erred in failing to include this requested additional language in the instruction given. In this particular, the trial court instructed in accord with the Oklahoma Uniform Jury Instructions — Civil (2d Ed.1993) providing:

A hospital must exercise ordinary care and attention for its patients. Ordinary care means that care and attention required under all the circumstances that is appropriate to the physical and mental condition of each patient. A hospital has a duty to supervise care rendered to a patient by hospital employees.

O.U.J.I.2d, Instruction No. 14.6 at 196.

We have reviewed the cited cases and the law supportive of the instruction given, and we find the language of the Uniform Instruction fairly sets forth the duty of a hospital to its patients. See, e.g., Kimery, 622 P.2d at 1072. We therefore conclude the trial court did not err in refusing to include the additional proffered language.

In his second proposition, Harrison complains the trial court’s four separate instructions to the jury regarding an invitee fundamentally changed the appropriate standard which the jury should have considered in assessing liability. These instructions defined an invitee and the general duty owed thereto, informed the jury of the duty to warn an invitee of hidden dangers, and instructed the jury that no duty exists to warn an invitee of open and obvious dangers.2

In the present case, we have reviewed the record and find nothing therein establishing Harrison’s status as anything other than Hospital’s patient. That is, the only evidence in the record supports the single and uncon-troverted conclusion of Harrison’s status as Hospital’s patient, and the parties so stipulated. As a matter of law then, Hospital owed Harrison a much higher duty than that owed to Hospital’s invitees. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the fact that Harrison’s status as an invitee was never at issue, the trial court instructed the jury on both Hospital’s duty to its patients and Hospital’s duty to its invitees.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Ardmore v. Hendrix
1960 OK 2 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1960)
Danner v. Chandler
1951 OK 208 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1951)
Hillcrest Medical Center v. Wier
1962 OK 158 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1962)
Lindsay v. Sikes
1971 OK 40 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1971)
Deskins v. Woodward
1971 OK 39 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1971)
Van Wart v. Cook
557 P.2d 1161 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Paul v. N. L. Industries, Inc.
1980 OK 127 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1980)
Woodall v. Chandler Material Co.
1986 OK 4 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1986)
Kimery v. Public Service Co. of Oklahoma
1980 OK 187 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1980)
Bode v. Clark Equipment Co.
1986 OK 21 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1986)
Nu-Pro, Inc. v. GL Bartlett & Co., Inc.
1977 OK 226 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1977)
Eversole v. Oklahoma Hospital Founders Ass'n
1991 OK 80 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1991)
Gaither by & Through Chalfin v. City of Tulsa
1983 OK 61 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1983)
Hadnot v. Shaw
1992 OK 21 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1992)
Laubach v. Morgan
588 P.2d 1071 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1978)
Sutherland v. Saint Francis Hospital, Inc.
1979 OK 18 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1979)
Bradley Chevrolet, Inc. v. Goodson
1969 OK 25 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1969)
City of Tulsa v. Pearson
1954 OK 298 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1954)
Tulsa Hospital Ass'n v. Juby
1918 OK 396 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1918)
In Re Disbarment of Chitwood
1927 OK 33 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1995 OK CIV APP 61, 904 P.2d 146, 66 O.B.A.J. 3203, 1995 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 103, 1995 WL 601381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harrison-v-st-josephs-regional-medical-center-of-northern-oklahoma-inc-oklacivapp-1995.