Pepke v. Grace Hospital

• Decision Date: 08 May 1902
• Citation: 90 N.W. 278,130 Mich. 493
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: PEPKE v. GRACE HOSPITAL et al.

90 N.W. 278

130 Mich. 493

PEPKE v. GRACE HOSPITAL et al.

Supreme Court of Michigan

May 8, 1902

Error to circuit court, Wayne county; Joseph W. Donovan, Judge.

Action by Reuben Pepke, by Edward Pepke, his next friend, against the Grace Hospital and others. From a judgment for defendants, plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

Plaintiff a boy 11 years of age, trespassed upon the tracks of a railroad company, and climbed upon the ladder of a freight car of a moving train to ride. Seeing some one approach, he jumped from the car, and in doing so fell. His hand struck upon the rail, and the wheel passed over it, crushing the bones of the hand, and making what plaintiff's physician said was a compound, comminuted fracture. He was taken into an office near by, where some one telephoned for an ambulance. Word was also sent to his home that he had been taken to the defendant hospital. His mother immediately telephoned the hospital to await her arrival, and to get her family physician, Dr. Hare. The hospital physicians waited for the arrival of his mother, and immediately telephoned for Dr. Hare. It was from an hour to an hour and a half before they could find him, and he arrived about two hours after the plaintiff reached the hospital. The physicians, deeming it inexpedient to wait longer for the arrival of Dr. Hare performed the operation, and amputated the arm somewhere between the wrist and the elbow. Dr. Fletcher, house surgeon performed the operation, assisted by Dr. Haggerty, the house physician. Dr. Knight, one of the visiting surgeons, of large experience, came into the operating room about the time the arm was ready for sawing off the bone. Dr. Knight advised that more of the fiesh be removed, and that the arm be amputated a little further up; his reason for this being that the flesh had become devitalized by the accident, and there would be danger unless it was removed. The physicians agreed to this, and the operation was performed in the presence of the three. Dr. Hare arrived after the bone had been sawed off, and witnessed the rest of the operation. Defendants James and William C. McMillan and Mr. Gillis are the trustees; Mr. Putnam is the superintendent of the hospital but has nothing to do with the surgical operations; and Mr. Olin is a member of the medical board. Plaintiff sues the defendant hospital and its trustees for negligence in performing the operation. All the physicians, including Dr. Hare, admit that the operation was skillfully performed. The only charge of malpractice made against Dr. Fletcher and the other physicians is that more of the arm might have been saved by amputating it nearer the wrist. The charge of negligence in the declaration is that Dr. Fletcher was incompetent, and that the defendant trustees knowingly employed an inexperienced and incompetent physician. The court directed a verdict for the defendants, chiefly upon the ground that, the defendant hospital being a charitable institution, neither it nor its trustees were liable for the negligence of its employ�s.

Trevor & Trevor (Fred. H. Aldrich, of counsel), for appellant.

Wells, Angell, Boynton & McMillan, for appellees.

GRANT J. (after stating the facts).

1. The defendant Grace Hospital is a charitable institution organized and maintained in the same manner as Harper Hospital of Detroit. The liability alleged against defendant in this case is the same as that alleged in Downes v. Harper Hospital, 101 Mich. 555, 60 N.W. 42, To view preceding link please click here 25 L. R. A. 602, 45 Am. St. Rep. 427. That case controls this as to the liability of Grace Hospital, and the court properly directed a verdict for the defendant hospital.

2. The trustees of the hospital are laymen. The rules of the hospital provide for a medical...