Paul v. Escambia County Hospital Bd., 3 Div. 337
| Decision Date | 06 February 1969 |
| Docket Number | 3 Div. 337 |
| Citation | 218 So.2d 817,283 Ala. 488 |
| Parties | Frances P. PAUL v. ESCAMBIA COUNTY HOSPITAL BOARD. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Owens & Patton, Bay Minette, for appellant.
Brooks, Garrett & Thompson, Brewton, for appellee.
This is an appeal from a judgment of non-suit suffered by the plaintiff, occasioned by the trial court's overruling the demurrer of the plaintiff to the defendant's pleas.
The plaintiff's complaint as last amended, to which such pleas were addressed, is as follows:
'COUNT ONE:
'The Plaintiff claims of the Defendant, Escambia County Hospital Board, a corporation, organized pursuant to Alabama Code Title 22, Section 204(17) et seq., the sum of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($100,000.00) for that heretofore, on, to-wit, September 27, 1965, at 4:30 o'clock P.M., the Defendant was engaged in the operation of a hospital at Atmore, Alabama, known as Greenlawn Hospital for the treatment of patients, which patients required special medical attention and other treatment, and which facilities and services were maintained and offered both for paying patients and for charity patients; that such facilities offered included a labor room and delivery room wherein expectant mothers might be cared for and children born and said Defendant in the regular course of the said operation of said hospital, hired, paid and maintained a regular staff of technicians and nurses to care for and administer to said expectant mothers and that on the same date alleged hereinabove, September 27, 1965, the said Plaintiff, who was an expectant mother, entered into an implied contract with the Defendant wherein and whereby, for valuable consideration, Defendant impliedly contracted, undertook, promised and agreed to nurse and care for the said Plaintiff on said date and to furnish to the said Plaintiff all such special facilities offered by it in the regular course of its operations of said hospital, all for the purpose of delivering or giving birth to the Plaintiff's expectant child; that on said date, pursuant to said contract, the Plaintiff entered the said hospital so operated by the Defendant, after having agreed to pay all reasonable compensation and charges and subsequently paying all such charges for the said facilities to be used and services to be rendered by the Defendant, but that said Defendant did not perform or fulfill its contract to nurse and care for the said Plaintiff and to assist in the delivery or birth of the expectant child, or to place the Plaintiff in the special facilities provided for expectant mothers, but on the contrary, the Defendant on September 28, 1965, administered to the Plaintiff a drug, said drug being for the purpose of hastening birth, and commonly known as the 'drip', and then in violation of the said contract the Defendant failed to place the plaintiff in the special facilities so contracted for, to-wit, the rooms known as labor rooms and delivery rooms and failed to give the Plaintiff assistance, supervision and attention and abandoned her by leaving her unattended in a semi-private room, all in violation of the terms of the implied contract and as a proximate consequence of the Defendant's breach of said contract the Plaintiff's said expectant child, when born unattended on September 28, 1965, in said semi-private room and at said hospital, with its mother's umbilical cord wrapped around the child's neck, choked and strangled to death, and the Plaintiff was caused to suffer pain and mental agony and the Plaintiff received all of such injuries as a proximate consequence of the breach of the said implied contract.
'COUNT TWO:
'The Plaintiff claims of the Defendant, Escambia County Hospital Board, a corporation, organized pursuant to Alabama Code Title 22, Section 204(17) et seq., the sum of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($100,000.00) for that heretofore, on, to-wit, September 27, 1965, at 4:30 o'clock P.M., the Defendant was engaged in the operation of a hospital at Atmore, Alabama, known as Greenlawn Hospital, for the treatment of patients, which patients required special medical attention and other treatment, and which facilities and services were maintained and offered both for paying patients and for charity patients; that such facilities offered included a labor room and delivery room wherein expectant mothers might be cared for and children born and said Defendant in the regular course of the said operation of said hospital, hired, paid and maintained a regular staff of technicians and nurses to care for and administer to said expectant mothers and that on the same date alleged hereinabove, September 27, 1965, the said Plaintiff, who was an expectant mother, entered into an implied contract with the Defendant wherein and whereby, for valuable consideration, Defendant impliedly contracted, undertook, promised and agreed to nurse and care for the said Plaintiff on said date and to furnish to the said Plaintiff all such special facilities offered by it in the regular course of its operations of said hospital, all for the purpose of delivering or giving birth to the Plaintiff's expectant child; that on said date, pursuant to said contract, the Plaintiff entered the said hospital so operated by the Defendant, after having agreed to pay all reasonable compensation and charges and subsequently paying all such charges for the said facilities to be used and services to be rendered by the Defendant, but that said Defendant, after having accepted said contract, did on, to-wit, September 28, 1965, attempt to repudiate or abandon the same by seeking, demanding and threatening the removal of the Plaintiff from its premises, and failing therein, the said Defendant did not fulfill or perform its contract to nurse and care for said Plaintiff and to assist in the delivery or with the birth of the expectant child, or to place the plaintiff in the special facilities contracted for and provided for expectant mothers, but on the contrary, in violation of the terms of said contract, the Defendant failed to give the Plaintiff assistance, supervision and attention and failed to place the Plaintiff in the special facilities contracted for, to-wit, the delivery rooms and abandoned her by leaving her unattended in a semi-private hospital room, all in violation of the terms of the implied contract, and as a proximate consequence of the Defendant's breach of said contract, the Plaintiff's said expectant child, when born unattended on September 28, 1965, in said semi-private room and at said hospital, with its mother's unbilical cord wrapped around the child's neck, choked and strangled to death, and the Plaintiff was caused to suffer pain and mental agony and the Plaintiff received all of such injuries as a proximate consequence of the breach of the said implied contract.'
The defendant filed pleas (1) denying the allegations of the complaint and (2)...
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