Tioga County General Hospital v. Tidd

164 Misc. 273, 298 N.Y.S. 460, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1738
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 18, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 164 Misc. 273 (Tioga County General Hospital v. Tidd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tioga County General Hospital v. Tidd, 164 Misc. 273, 298 N.Y.S. 460, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1738 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1937).

Opinion

McNaught, J.

The plaintiff seeks to recover the amount of a subscription by the defendant to the construction and equipment fund for the Tioga County General Hospital at Waverly, N. Y., with a proviso that the X-ray room in the hospital to be constructed should be dedicated as a memorial to Charles W. Tidd, father of the defendant. The subscription was made on the 20th day of March, 1929, and was for the sum of $7,200. Thereafter the defendant purported to cancel such subscription, has refused to pay the same, and the action is brought to recover the amount thereof.

A clear understanding of the condition and circumstances under which the subscription was made and attempted to be canceled, requires a statement of some of the historical facts disclosed by the evidence.

The village of Waverly is situate in the county of Tioga in the State of New York. It is closely adjacent to the Pennsylvania State Une. Sayre, Athens and some other smaU communities are also adjacent to the State line, in the State of Pennsylvania. The towns virtuaffy run into each other and constitute in effect one community.

The Robert Packer Hospital, a large and well-known institution, is located at Sayre. It has been in existence for over fifty years. The Packer Hospital was operated as what is known as a closed ” hospital in the medical profession, which, it is estabUshed, requires that patients treated in the hospital must be treated or operated upon by members of the staff of such hospital. It appears there has been some modification of the strictness of a “ closed ” institution in that now, and for some time past, physicians have been allowed to bring patients to the hospital and treat them medically, but no operative surgery can be performed except by a member of the Packer Hospital staff.

Efforts were made to modify the closed character of the Packer Hospital, which were Unsuccessful, and in 1910 there was organized in Sayre an institution caUed the People’s Hospital, originally a residence owned by one Dr. Theodore Wright, to which additions [276]*276were built and from time to time the capacity enlarged. This institution was located in close proximity to the Packer Hospital.

In the year 1928, the facilities of the People’s Hospital having become inadequate and somewhat obsolete, it was proposed to rebuild and enlarge it. There was no hospital located in the county of Tioga in New York State, and the nearest hospital facilities were at Elmira, nineteen miles west, a maternity hospital at Towanda, Pa., a hospital at Ithaca, thirty-six miles west, and hospitals in Endicott, Johnson City and Binghamton, approximately forty miles east.

A movement was started to build a hospital at Waverly, instead of rebuilding the People’s Hospital at Sayre, for the accommodation of five counties and surrounding territory without hospital facilities. Meetings were called and held and in June, 1928, the subject was informally discussed at a meeting held in the high school in Waverly. In January, 1929, a so-called organization meeting was held in Waverly. At this meeting officers were elected. The name Tioga County .General Hospital ” was adopted. The organization was termed the general committee. An executive committee was appointed, and such executive committee with the officers were given power to take such steps as might be necessary to finance and carry the project to completion. An architect was consulted and presented tentative plans. The records of the proceedings show that the general plan adopted was subsequently carried out. Officers were authorized to make contracts; an architect was employed, and a contract was entered into with a finance company to raise money for the construction of the hospital. In February, 1929, one Mrs. Cooper tendered a gift of a four-acre site of land for the new hospital, which was accepted. In February the executive committee was authorized to borrow funds to cover the cost and expense of a financial campaign, and money was borrowed from the banks in Waverly, the notes being signed in the name of Tioga County General Hospital by its treasurer. The campaign to raise funds was conducted; the hospital was constructed; the Tioga County General Hospital was thereafter formally incorporated, and it has since 1930 been in operation.

In January, 1929, it was decided that the objective of the campaign to raise funds be fixed at $300,000. A campaign for raising funds was discussed, which included a plan providing that the cost of construction of various units be estimated and subscribers offered the right, in return for their subscriptions of the amount of the cost of such -unit, to have the same dedicated as a memorial in honor or in memory of some person to be named by them. A booklet was prepared and printed, explaining the memorial plan [277]*277and containing a description and illustrations relative to the proposed Tioga County General Hospital. The booklet was generally circulated and interested parties were asked to give names of persons whom they thought would be interested in purchasing memorials. Among the names suggested was that of the defendant, a native of the vicinity, whose family had resided at Athens and who, as a young man, had been employed and had lived in Waverly. The defendant, it would appear from the evidence, had always retained an interest in the community of his birth, although he had become a successful and prominent financier. Dr. Edward N. Cowell, a physician and surgeon residing at Athens, Pa., had practiced his profession in that community for more than fifty years. He knew the defendant, and was the Tidd family physician for a great many years. He had suggested the name of the defendant as a possible subscriber for a memorial. Dr. Cowell and Dr. Harry S. Fish, both of whom were interested in the movement, went to New York city after Dr. Cowell had made an appointment with the defendant, and visited him at his office at 30 Church street on the morning of March 20, 1929.

There is practically no dispute as to essential facts in the testimony of Dr. Cowell, Dr. Fish and the defendant as to what occurred, or what was said at the meeting in the defendant’s office, excepting upon one important issue. It is conceded that the meeting was cordial and agreeable; that the project was explained, and the defendant advised as to the situation; that the memorial plan was discussed; that a memorial booklet was at least present; that the defendant said there was a memorial he wanted for his father, the X-ray room; that he asked the amount of the subscription necessary to dedicate the X-ray room as a memorial to his father; that Dr. Cowell produced a subscription card upon which was typewritten the name of the defendant; that the defendant took out his pen, crossed off his own typewritten name and wrote above his name at the top of the card the name of his father; that while the word Memorial ” had been stamped upon the card, Dr. Fish wrote in parenthesis with his pen the word “ (Memorial) ” after the name of the defendant’s father as he had written it; that the card was filled in with the amount seventy-two hundred ” by the , defendant and he then signed the card with his name and address.

The dispute in the testimony relative to this visit relates practically in its entirety as to what was said relative to the Robert Packer Hospital. The defendant testified that when he was asked if he would contribute to the fund for the hospital at Waverly, .he said: “ ‘ Now, wait a minute. I am interested in the Robert Packer Hospital and I would not think of doing anything that is [278]

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Bluebook (online)
164 Misc. 273, 298 N.Y.S. 460, 1937 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1738, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tioga-county-general-hospital-v-tidd-nysupct-1937.