Luba v. Bashline

48 Pa. D. & C.2d 348, 1969 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 88
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Mercer County
DecidedSeptember 8, 1969
Docketno. 75
StatusPublished

This text of 48 Pa. D. & C.2d 348 (Luba v. Bashline) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Mercer County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luba v. Bashline, 48 Pa. D. & C.2d 348, 1969 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 88 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1969).

Opinion

ACKER, J.,

Defendants, through a motion to strike and to set aside service, present to this court the issue of whether individual members of a partnership association formed under the Act of June 2, 1874, P. L. 271, 59 PS §341,1 consisting of osteopathic physicians, can be held individually liable for the tort of an employe. The action is in trespass for personal injuries to a minor plaintiff and derivative rights by her parents for severe permanent injuries alleged to be caused by an injection administered in the left hip of the minor on June 6, 1967, by an employe of defendants. Defendants’ partnership association was formed in December of 1961 for period of 20 years pursuant to the unique provisions of the Partnership Association Act of June 2, 1874, P. L. 271, as amended. The Act of May 1, 1876, P. L. 89, sec. 3, 15 PS §12773 and 59 PS §361, provides that such an association, “. . . shall sue and be sued in their association name; and when suit is brought against any such association, service thereof shall be made upon the chairman, secretary or treasurer thereof, which service shall be as complete and effective as if made upon each and every member of such association.”

It is the contention of plaintiffs that defendant organization is really a general partnership as opposed to a statutory limited partnership and as such is controlled by Pa. R. C. P. 2128, which permits an action against a partnership to be prosecuted against one or more of the partners or against the partnership in its [350]*350firm name. Plaintiff furnishes no reason why defendants are not properly organized under the above-mentioned statute and we find that they are so organized and constituted.

So finding, plaintiffs’ contention is contra to the very wording of procedural rule 2176, dealing with corporations and similar entities as parties. It states that “ ‘corporation or similar entity’ includes any . . . partnership association limited.” 2

If this were not an association of licensed professional medical practitioners, i. e., osteopathic physicians, the matter would be readily concluded in favor of defendants. Paragraph three of the “amended articles of partnership association” reads, however, “that the character of the business to be conducted is for the purpose of providing efficient and comprehensive medical and surgical treatment both of ‘in patients and/or out patients,’ together with allied services pertaining to the more efficient and comprehensive medical and surgical treatment of patients.”

I. Can the Defendants Comply with Its Articles and Operate as a Limited Partnership to Exclude [351]*351Personal Liability of the Individual Partners for the Negligent Acts of Their Agents, Employes and Subordinates?

In 1961, the Pennsylvania legislature recognized by the Act of August 7, 1961, P. L. 941, sec. 1, et seq., the problems of professional persons unable by ‘law, tradition or etc . . .” to incorporate. It lists particularly that osteopaths were in such a category.3

Section 17 of that act, 15 PS §12617, would require in this case that the partners stand personally hable, for it is provided:

“(a) All of the associates of a professional association are liable jointly and severally for:

“(1) The torts of any agent or employe of the association committed while such agent or employe is acting within the ordinary course of operation of the association.”

The issue then evolves as to whether the public policy of the Commonwealth is so strong as expressed in the above statute and our case law that the partners should not be permitted to avoid personal liability in this case by the use of the Act of 1874.

In deciding that issue, the fact that this limited partnership was formed December 14, 1961, after the “Professional Association Act” became effective is of note. Also that the articles provided that the partnership was formed “. . . for the purpose of providing efficient and comprehensive medical and surgical treatment both of ‘in patients and/or out patients,’ together with allied services pertaining to the more efficient and comprehensive medical and surgical treatment of patients.”

The general rule is that all partners are liable for the negligence of one or an employe whose conduct arises from activities within the scope of his employment and in the furtherance of the partners’ business: [352]*352Baxter v. Wunder, 89 Pa. Superior Ct. 585 (1927); Fleming v. Kehler, 38 Northumb. 93 (1965), 28 P. L. Encyc. sec. 154, p. 627, 175 A. L. R. 1311.

In Brown v. Moore, 247 F. 2d 711, 355 U. S. 882, 2 L. Ed. 112, 78 S. Ct. 148 (1957), same case, 143 F. Supp. 816, p. 716: “We point out that a person going to a doctor for treatment impliedly contracts with him for treatment and under the law of Pennsylvania if the doctor fails to afford proper treatment and care a malpractice case sounding in tort can be maintained. It is also the law of Pennsylvania that partners are liable for trespass by themselves or by their employees in the legitimate course of the partnership business: 59 PS Pa. §35 and Baxter v. Wunder, 1927, 89 Pa. Super. 585.”

Pennsylvania has held that a doctor in a hospital is liable for the negligence of a student nurse who burned a patient’s feet by applying a scalding hot water bottle to plaintiffs feet. Liability was grounded on the concept that the act was not just administrative but therapeutic in nature: Benedict v. Bondi, 384 Pa. 574, 122 A.2d 209 (1956).

A doctor likewise may be hable for the neghgent act of an intern in injecting the eye of a child: McConnell v. Williams, 361 Pa. 355, 65 A.2d 243 (1949).

In this case, it is alleged the neghgent act was performed by an “agent, servant and employee.”

Therefore, if the Act of 1874 was not here involved, there is no doubt liabihty of ah partners could be asserted.

Professional persons in recent years have made numerous efforts to gain the same tax advantage as others achieving similar incomes, but have repeatedly been rebutted in their efforts by the Internal Revenue Service.4

[353]*353Even after some of the Federal courts have recognized the right of professional men to organize for this purpose, the IRS has issued a directive refusing to recognize such partnerships and threatening to hold them invalid.5

Pennsylvania was one of the States which passed a statute to permit professional persons to form professional associations by the Act of 1961, supra. This statute was, of course, designed to meet IRS objections by clearly spelling out that the partners are required to be liable “jointly and severally for the torts of their agents and employee.”

The Act of 1874, supra, under which defendants organized, was designed, it would appear, to grant limited liability if, but only if, verbatim compliance with the statute is effected.6 The failure to insert the word, “limited,” renders each participant hable individually for indebtedness, damage or liability.7 Where the certificate of organization is defective members are hable as general partners.8

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Bluebook (online)
48 Pa. D. & C.2d 348, 1969 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luba-v-bashline-pactcomplmercer-1969.