Kemp v. Sisters of Third Order of St. Francis

Decision Date14 May 1986
Docket NumberNo. 3-85-0505,3-85-0505
Citation493 N.E.2d 372,143 Ill.App.3d 360,97 Ill.Dec. 709
Parties, 97 Ill.Dec. 709 Beverly KEMP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SISTERS OF the THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS, d/b/a St. Mary's Hospital, a corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtUnited States Appellate Court of Illinois

Craig Collins, Galesburg, for plaintiff-appellant.

D. Kendall Griffith, Paul C. Estes and Lynn D. Dowd, Thomas & Hinshaw, Culbertson, Chicago, for defendant-appellee.

Presiding Justice SCOTT delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The plaintiff, Beverly Kemp, appeals from an order granting summary judgment in a malpractice action for the defendant, Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, d/b/a St. Mary's Hospital. We affirm.

The facts are not in dispute. On January 29, 1982, the plaintiff was hospitalized for surgery. While the plaintiff was lying on the operating room table, an independently employed nurse anesthetist knocked over an IV pole and an attached glass IV bottle. The IV bottle struck the plaintiff in the mouth, causing dental injuries. The plaintiff sued the defendant, alleging negligence in using a hard glass IV bottle, rather than a soft plastic bag, in the operating room.

On August 7, 1984, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds that the use of the glass IV bottle was not the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. The motion was denied.

On March 27, 1985, the scheduled date of the trial, the defendant again moved for summary judgment. That motion was based both on the grounds of the previous motion, and on a new theory that the plaintiff's expert witness could not state on deposition whether the defendant deviated from acceptable hospital practice in using glass IV bottles as opposed to plastic bags. The court granted the defendant's motion.

On appeal, the plaintiff argues that the defendant's use of a glass IV bottle was the proximate cause of her injuries. We disagree.

A proximate cause is one which produces the injury through a natural and continuous sequence of events unbroken by any effective intervening cause. (Chapman v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co. (1st Dist.,1950), 340 Ill.App. 475, 92 N.E.2d 466.) If the negligence charged does nothing more than furnish a condition which made the injury possible and that condition causes an injury by the subsequent independent act of a third party, the creation of that condition is not the proximate cause of the injury. (Merlo v. Public Service Co. (1942), 381 Ill. 300, 45 N.E.2d 665.) The subsequent independent act becomes the effective intervening cause which breaks the causal connection, and itself becomes the proximate cause. 381 Ill. 300, 45 N.E.2d 665.

The trial court found that the defendant only furnished the condition of the accident by its use of the glass IV bottle. The court further found the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries to be the intervening act of the independently employed nurse who knocked over the IV pole and bottle. As neither side disputed the facts, the issue of proximate cause,...

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30 cases
  • Rodriguez v. Glock, Inc., 96 C 3981.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
    • December 8, 1998
    ...Ill.App.3d 445, 451, 185 Ill.Dec. 556, 614 N.E.2d 1241, 1245 (Ill.App.Ct.1993); Kemp v. Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, 143 Ill.App.3d 360, 361, 97 Ill.Dec. 709, 493 N.E.2d 372, 373 (Ill.App.Ct.1986); Chapman v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 340 Ill.App. 475, 490, 92 N.E.2d 466, 471......
  • Lindenmier v. City of Rockford
    • United States
    • United States Appellate Court of Illinois
    • May 29, 1987
    ...by the trial court such that the plaintiff's right to fundamental justice is violated. Kemp v. Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (1986), 143 Ill.App.3d 360, 97 Ill.Dec. 709, 493 N.E.2d 372; Fearon v. Mobil Joliet Refining Corp. (1984), 131 Ill.App.3d 1, 86 Ill.Dec. 335, 475 N.E.2d P......
  • Pyne v. Witmer, s. 2-86-0532
    • United States
    • United States Appellate Court of Illinois
    • August 6, 1987
    ...by the trial court such that plaintiff's right to fundamental justice is violated. Kemp v. Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (1986), 143 Ill.App.3d 360, 362, 97 Ill.Dec. 709, 493 N.E.2d 372. The trial court was correct in granting summary judgment to Standard Three because Witmer wa......
  • Polak v. Person
    • United States
    • United States Appellate Court of Illinois
    • July 28, 1992
    ...v. Mobil Joliet Refining Corp. (1984), 131 Ill.App.3d 1, 86 Ill.Dec. 335, 475 N.E.2d 549; Kemp v. Sisters of Third Order of St. Francis (1986), 143 Ill.App.3d 360, 97 Ill.Dec. 709, 493 N.E.2d 372; Alop v. Edgewood Valley Community Association (1987), 154 Ill.App.3d 482, 107 Ill.Dec. 355, 50......
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