Reed v. Good Samaritan Hosp. Ass'n, Inc., 82-2325

Decision Date01 August 1984
Docket NumberNo. 82-2325,82-2325
Citation453 So.2d 229
PartiesVivian REED, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Yvette Dione Reed, Appellant, v. GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION, INC., Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Joel T. Daves, III, of Burdick & Daves, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Steven R. Berger, P.A. and Bernard & O'Brien of Fort Lauderdale, for appellee.

LETTS, Judge.

The question considered is whether a hospital is liable for the tortious acts committed on its premises by a physician in private practice to whom it has granted staff privileges. The trial judge directed a verdict in favor of the hospital. We agree.

This case involves tragic facts which tug at the heart strings. A young black girl, already known by her family and private physician to be suffering from sickle-cell anemia, took a turn for the worse and was taken to the emergency room by her sister. Upon her arrival, her private physician's group was contacted and various delays and uncertainties were encountered before the private physician's decision to admit her to the hospital was finally made, which delay may well have contributed to her death some four hours later.

Several arguments are made in support of liability on the part of the hospital, the most compelling of which is that the sister took the sick child to the hospital and looked to the hospital not her doctor for assistance. However, the law is clear that if the doctor is "an independent contractor, that shield[s] the hospital from vicarious liability." Irving v. Doctors Hospital of Lake Worth, Inc., 415 So.2d 55, 56 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982). Notwithstanding, Irving is cited by the child's estate because of an instruction given in it that read in part:

Patients entering the hospital through the Emergency Room could properly assume that the treating doctors and staff of the hospital were acting on behalf of the hospital. Id. at 57, n. 2(c).

With regard to the above quoted instruction from Irving, the child's estate urges it upon us as a rule of law which should be applied here. However, this urging ignores the fact that the question of negligence on the part of the emergency room physician working at the hospital did go to the jury in the case before us now and the jury found none. Moreover, the Irving case, supra, on its facts, makes it abundantly clear that it was concerned with the negligence of the emergency room physician who was paid a salary by the hospital and possessed of...

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10 cases
  • Harry v. Marchant
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
    • May 16, 2002
    ...42, 430 & 441 (statement submitted by the American College of Emergency Physicians); see also Reed v. Good Samaritan Hosp. Ass'n, Inc., 453 So.2d 229 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App. 1984). 3. The complaint named Miami Beach Healthcare Group, Ltd., d/b/a Aventura Hospital and Medical Center as a 4. The co......
  • Insinga v. LaBella
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • April 20, 1989
    ...state a cause of action against Humana. The district court was persuaded that the case was governed by Reed v. Good Samaritan Hospital Ass'n, 453 So.2d 229, 230 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1984) in which the court held that, "a hospital is not vicariously liable for the tortious acts of an independent......
  • Menzie v. Windham Community Memorial Hosp., Civ. No. H-88-605 (PCD).
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
    • September 16, 1991
    ...at 1208; Cooper v. Curry, 92 N.M. 417, 589 P.2d 201, 203, cert. denied, 92 N.M. 353, 588 P.2d 554 (1978); Reed v. Good Samaritan Hosp. Ass'n, 453 So.2d 229, 230 (Fla.App. 1984) (a physician whose only connection with a hospital is that he or she has staff privileges is not an agent or emplo......
  • Stone v. Palms West Hosp., 4D05-4042.
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • November 8, 2006
    ...1364 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Cedars Medical Center, Inc. v. Ravelo, 738 So.2d 362 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999); Reed v. Good Samaritan Hospital Association, Inc., 453 So.2d 229 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). An exception to this rule applies to hospital-based physicians, who are under contract with the hospital t......
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