Shortridge v. Bede

319 P.2d 277, 51 Wash. 2d 391, 1957 Wash. LEXIS 546
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1957
Docket34057
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 319 P.2d 277 (Shortridge v. Bede) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shortridge v. Bede, 319 P.2d 277, 51 Wash. 2d 391, 1957 Wash. LEXIS 546 (Wash. 1957).

Opinions

Donworth, J.

Appellants, Harvey E. Shortridge and wife, by amended complaint, alleged substantially (1) that on October 31,1952, while within the course and scope of his employment (classified as an extrahazardous industry within the purview of the workmen’s compensation act, RCW 51.04.010 et seq.), appellant Harvey Shortridge experienced a sharp pain in his side; (2) that he went to the office of respondent physicians and surgeons for examination, diagnosis, and treatment; (3) that on December 8, 1952, he entered respondents’ hospital, at which time he consented to an operation by respondents for the repair of a bilateral hernia which they had previously advised him was necessary, and respondents, for a valuable consideration, agreed to and did perform such surgery; (4) that during the course of the operation respondents, without the consent of appellants, negligently severed or tied his spermatic ducts or vas deferens; (5) that respondents, in their report to the department of labor and industries, made no mention of [392]*392having severed his spermatic ducts, as a result of which he received no time loss or disability rating by reason of the severing of said ducts; (6) that on June 12, 1953, he discovered that he had been the subject of malpractice, and that he had a right to elect to sue respondents for damages for the malpractice; (7) that “he hereby elects to sue” respondents, and

“ . . . shall notify the Department of Labor and Industry, of said election and shall agree to pay to the Department of Labor and Industry out of his recovery herein the amount of timeloss compensation received by him, if any, attributable to the severance of his spermatic cords as distinguished from that compensation received by him from the authorized bilateral hernia repair”;

and (8) that, as a sole and proximate result of respondent’s negligence, he was rendered sterile.

Appellants’ allegations of negligence were further amplified by bill of particulars, reading as follows:

“1. In mistaking plaintiff, Harvey E. Shortridge, for another patient who had requested and consented to a vaseo-tomy operation.
“2. In failing to take such precautions as are reasonably necessary to prevent the accidental severance of said plaintiff’s vasdeferens while performing said bi-lateral hernia repair.
“3. In negligently severing one or both of plaintiff’s vas-deferens in the course of said bi-lateral hernia repair.
“4. In having severed one or both of plaintiff’s vas-deferens by then failing to exercise and undertake reasonable surgical means to effect a repair of said spermatic cords or cord.
“5. In discharging said plaintiff as cured when in fact, he required further medical treatment in connection with the injuries for which defendants undertook treatment, to-wit: a repair of the severed spermatic cords or cord.”

Respondents interposed a general demurrer to the amended complaint, based upon all statutory grounds (RCW 4.32.050). However, the sole ground relied upon by respondents was that the amended complaint, together with the bill of particulars, does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

[393]*393The trial court concluded that the decision of this court in Ross v. Erickson Constr. Co., 89 Wash. 634, 155 Pac. 153 (1916), compelled its holding that appellants could not recover from respondents damages for the malpractice alleged. The trial court sustained the demurrer on the ground relied upon by respondents. Appellants having refused to plead further, a judgment of dismissal was entered, from which this appeal is prosecuted.

Appellants’ only assignment of error is directed to the sustaining of the demurrer and the subsequent judgment of dismissal.

Treating the bill of particulars and the amended complaint as one instrument containing allegations that are admitted by the demurrer, we have two separate and inconsistent kinds of negligence alleged:

(1) That respondents mistook appellant for another patient who was in the hospital for the purpose of sterilization (•i.e., there was no hernia operation intended or attempted), and

(2) That respondents performed a hernia operation on appellant and, in the course thereof, negligently severed one or both vas deferens, resulting in his sterilization.

With respect to the first state of facts, the workmen’s compensation act has no application whatever, because the alleged sterilization had no connection with the industrial injury sustained by appellant husband which resulted in his bilateral hernia. Consequently, the demurrer should have been overruled.

Ordinarily, we would terminate the discussion of the problem at this point by directing a reversal of the trial court’s judgment of dismissal. However, in view of the public importance of the question presented by the second state of facts, which affects the rights of workmen, employers, and physicians with respect to injuries received in extrahazardous employment, we shall consider the provisions of the workmen’s compensation act applicable thereto.

Since the sole basis for the judgment appealed from, as shown by the trial court’s memorandum decision, was that [394]*394our decision in Ross v. Erickson Constr. Co., supra, is controlling, we will examine that case to determine whether the trial court correctly applied its rationale in the present case.

In the Ross case, an employee, engaged in extrahazardous employment, sued his employer and the physician (who was also employed by the latter) to recover damages alleged to have resulted from the physician’s malpractice, which aggravated his pre-existing industrial injuries. Prior to the commencement of the action, the injured workman had made claim under the industrial insurance law and accepted a final award.

The facts of that case appear to us to make it distinguishable from the facts of the present case in two material respects. First, the defendants in the Ross case were the employer of the injured workman and the physician employed by the employer to attend the injured workman, or, to put it another way, the physician was in the same employ as the injured workman. Here, no such relationship exists between employer and physician, nor was the workman “compelled” to consult a particular physician. The only relationship between the parties hereto was that of physician and patient, which was created by appellant’s voluntarily selecting his own physician. Second, in the Ross case, a final award under the industrial insurance act had been made and accepted by the injured workman prior to the commencement of suit, whereas, in this case, the record does not disclose an acceptance by appellant of any award for the vasectomy, nor does the amended complaint allege that the vasectomy is in fact an “aggravation” of the pre-existing industrial injury.

The second distinction between this case and the Ross

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Related

Roan Eagle v. State
468 N.W.2d 382 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1991)
Kerr v. Olson
798 P.2d 819 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1990)
Shortridge v. Bede
319 P.2d 277 (Washington Supreme Court, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
319 P.2d 277, 51 Wash. 2d 391, 1957 Wash. LEXIS 546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shortridge-v-bede-wash-1957.