McKay v. Washoe General Hospital
| Decision Date | 06 July 1934 |
| Docket Number | 3052. |
| Citation | 33 P.2d 755,55 Nev. 336 |
| Parties | McKAY v. WASHOE GENERAL HOSPITAL et al. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Washoe County; Thomas F. Moran, Judge.
Action by Jennie McKay against the Washoe General Hospital and G. W Nottingham and others as members of the board of hospital trustees. From a judgment of dismissal, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Harwood & Diskin, of Reno, for appellant.
Wm McKnight, of Reno, for respondents.
This action was instituted to recover damages in the sum of $25,000. The demurrer to the complaint was sustained, and plaintiff declining to plead further, a judgment of dismissal was entered, from which an appeal has been taken.
Taking the view we do of this case, we do not deem it necessary to state all of the allegations of the complaint. Suffice to say that it avers that Washoe General Hospital was organized pursuant to chapter 169, Statutes 1929, and that the individual defendants are the trustees of the hospital; that the plaintiff, while a resident of Esmeralda county, Nev entered defendant hospital for care and treatment, pursuant to an agreement to pay therefor $4 per day, and had actually made a payment on account. It is further averred that it was, under the terms of said contract, the duty of defendants to furnish plaintiff with an experienced, competent, and skilled nurse to administer such medical attention to plaintiff as might be directed by her physician in the course of treatment to be given her, but, notwithstanding defendants' duty in this respect, they furnished plaintiff with a nurse who was incompetent, inexperienced, and unskilled, all of which was known to defendants, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been known to them.
The plaintiff further alleges that, while being treated and cared for, it was necessary that a liquid solution prescribed by her physician be administered to plaintiff's eye many times daily, and that it was the duty of the nurse furnished by defendant hospital to drop said liquid into her eye; that said nurse carelessly and recklessly dropped into the right eye of plaintiff a liquid not prescribed by plaintiff's physician, resulting in the complete and permanent destroying of the sight of her right eye, and seriously affecting the sight of her left eye, to her damage in the sum of $25,000.
The act referred to provides that any county in the state may establish a public hospital, and authorizes the method to be followed to attain that end. The act authorizes the levy of a tax for the establishing and maintenance of such hospital for a period of time not exceeding twenty years. It provides that the money raised from such levy shall be collected in the same manner as other taxes, and credited to the "Hospital Fund," and shall be paid out by the county treasurer on the order of the hospital trustees "for the purposes authorized by this act, and for no other purpose whatever"; and that the trustees shall in general carry out the spirit and intent of the act "in establishing and maintaining a county public hospital."
Section 9 of the act provides that every hospital established under the act shall be for the benefit of the inhabitants of such county and of any person falling sick or being injured or maimed within its limits, but that the board of hospital trustees may extend the privileges and use of such hospital to persons residing outside of such county, upon such terms and conditions as the trustees may prescribe; that every such inhabitant who is not a pauper shall pay a reasonable compensation for hospital services rendered, the receipts from such sources to be paid to the treasurer of said county and credited by...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Turner v. Staggs
...entity, and thus not subject to suit for tort. Bloom v. So. Nev. Hospital, 70 Nev. 533, 275 P.2d 885 (1954); McKay v. Washoe General Hospital, 55 Nev. 336, 33 P.2d 755 (1934). Thus, the dismissal of Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital from the suit appears to have been mandated by this court'......
-
Granite Oil Securities v. Douglas County, 3596
...respondent relies on Schweiss v. First Judicial District Court, 23 Nev. 226, 45 P. 289, 34 L.R.A. 602, and McKay v. Washoe General Hospital, 55 Nev. 336, 33 P.2d 755, 3l P.2d 78. It is our opinion that neither of these two cases may be said to control the present In Schweiss v. District Cou......
-
Hardgrave v. State ex rel. State Highway Dept., 4660
...to intervene and control today's case. Particularly puzzling is the scope of a county hospital's liability in tort. McKay v. Washoe General Hospital, 55 Nev. 336, 33 P.2d 755, 36 P.2d 78 and Bloom v. Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital, 70 Nev. 533, 275 P.2d 885, tell us that county hospitals......
-
In Re: On Rehearing
... ... It was not bound to build ... a county hospital,-the legislature did not so command ... Building and operating a ... refuse to accept such patients. (Cohen v. General ... Hospital Soc., 113 Conn. 188, 154 A. 437.) There is ... clearly no ... sovereign character ... In ... McKay v. Washoe General Hospital, 55 Nev. 336, 33 ... P.2d 755, 759, 36 P.2d ... ...