Cornelius v. Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Inc.

• Decision Date: 17 February 1959
• Docket Number: No. 124,124
• Citation: 148 A.2d 567,219 Md. 116
• Parties: Preston U. CORNELIUS v. SINAI HOSPITAL OF BALTIMORE, INCORPORATED.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 116

219 Md. 116

148 A.2d 567

Preston U. CORNELIUS v.SINAI HOSPITAL OF BALTIMORE, INCORPORATED.

No. 124.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Feb. 17, 1959.

Benjamin Lipsitz, Baltimore, for appellant.

William W. Cahill, Jr., Dene L. Lusby, Weinberg & Green, Baltimore, on the brief, for appellee.

Before HENDERSON, HAMMOND, PRESCOTT and HORNEY, JJ., and REUBEN OPPENHEIMER, J., Specially Assigned.

PER CURIAM.

In this appeal, we are requested to repudiate the doctrine that an eleemosynary corporation, namely a hospital, is not liable for injuries to a patient caused by the negligence of its physician in the course of his duties.This doctrine was adopted by this Court in Perry v. House of Refuge, 1885, 63 Md. 20, and has been reaffirmed in a long line of decisions, the last being State for Use of Cavanaugh v. Arundel Park Corporation, Md., 147 A.2d 427.Our attention is called to the fact that respected authorities in other jurisdictions have declined to apply the rule.

The same arguments that are now being advanced for the rejection of the doctrine were made, considered and denied in Howard v. South Baltimore General Hospital, 1948, 191 Md. 617, 62 A.2d 574.No matter what the merit of the argument as an original proposition may be, for this Court now to change the rule would be 'judicial legislation' of a very invidious nature.It would not only withdraw the immunity that this Court has repeatedly said exists, without affording any opportunity to those affected to indemnify themselves against...