Sprick v. North Shore Hospital, Inc., 59-188
| Decision Date | 27 June 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 59-188,59-188 |
| Parties | Clarence A. SPRICK, Jr., an infant, by his father and next friend, Clarence A. Sprick, and Clarence A. Sprick, individually, Appellants, v. NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL, INCORPORATED, a Florida corporation, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
R. E. Hodges, Miami, for appellants.
Blackwell, Walker & Gray and John B. Kelley, Miami, for appellee.
The plaintiffs, who are appellants here, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court charging that the defendant, hospital, negligently and carelessly failed to provide adequate or proper supervision and attendance of the infant plaintiff while said infant was a patient in the hospital. It was further alleged that such negligence resulted in the infant being permitted to strangle and to 'stop breathing' for a period of approximately 45 minutes, with resulting physical injuries. The trial court entered a summary final judgment for the defendant hospital and this appeal followed. We hold that there was a material question of fact as to defendant's alleged negligence in that the facts established by the pleadings, depositions and affidavits on file were such that negligence could logically be found by reasonable men. We therefore reverse and remand the cause for trial.
A hospital is bound to exercise toward a patient such reasonable care as his known condition may require, the degree of care being in proportion to his known physical and mental ailments. The extent and character of the care that a hospital owes its patients depends upon the circumstances of the particular case, and the measure of the duty of a hospital is to exercise that degree of care, skill and diligence used by hospitals generally in the community and required by the express or implied contract of the undertaking. Memorial Hospital, South Broward Hospital Dist. v. Doring, Fla.App.1958, 106 So.2d 565; Marsh v. City of St. Petersburg, Fla.App.1958, 106 So.2d 567.
The above general rule as to the care a hospital should exercise in safeguarding patients submitted to its charge points out that one of the elements in determining the amount of care to be exercised is measured by the capacity of the patient to care for himself. Naturally, a higher degree of care is required in attending a newborn baby than an adult. Cf. McCain v. Bankers Life & Cas. Co., Fla.App.1959, 110 So.2d 718, 68 A.L.R.2d 1194.
The answer of the defendant consisted of a denial of any negligence on its part. Interrogatories were served on the plaintiffs and answered. The depositions were taken of the treating pediatrician and the registered nurse in charge of the nursery. The appellee urges that the basis for the summary judgment was the court's findings that the circumstances surrounding the accident as revealed by the depositions of the pediatrician and the registered nurse, together with certain hospital records and photographs attached to the depositions and to the affidavits, conclusively demonstrated that defendant hospital had done everything that it should have done in order to prevent the unfortunate occurrence. This position of the hospital was substantiated by affidavits of an administrator, who gave as his opinion, that the accident involving the infant was of a nature that could have occurred in any hospital nursery regardless of how much care and attention was exercised. There were also affidavits of several hospital administrators that this particular hospital was fully accredited at the time of the incident and that the nursery was generally maintained, staffed and supervised in accordance with the highest standards of nursery care.
It is our view that the affidavits as to the type...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Cassel v. Price
...to take measures to avoid a danger which the circumstances as known to him do not suggest as likely to happen. Sprick v. North Shore Hospital, 121 So.2d 682 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1960). No contention is made, nor could it reasonably be argued, that the condition of the ground under the tree, upon w......
-
McAllister v. Robbins, 87-1103
...known to him do not suggest as likely to happen. Cassel v. Price, 396 So.2d 258, 264 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981), citing Sprick v. North Shore Hospital, 121 So.2d 682 (Fla. 3d DCA 1960); Emmons v. Baptist Hospital, 478 So.2d 440, 443 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985), review denied, 488 So.2d 67 (Fla.1986). Prev......
-
Lab v. Hall
...by hospitals generally in the community and required by the express or implied contract of the undertaking. Sprick v. North Shore Hospital, Incorporated, Fla.App.1960, 121 So.2d 682; Marsh v. City of St. Petersburg, Fla.App.1958, 106 So.2d 567; Memorial Hospital, South Broward Hospital Dist......
-
City Cab Co. of Orlando, Inc. v. Green
...Inc. v. Mausner, 264 So.2d 859 (3rd D.C.A.Fla.1972); Gresham v. Courson, 177 So.2d 33 (1st D.C.A.Fla.1965) ; Sprick v. North Shore Hospital Inc., 121 So.2d 682 (3d D.C.A.Fla.1960); 23 Fla.Jur. Negligence, §§ 2, 19, 20 This fundamental premise and requirement is recognized in the Florida Sta......