Stanturf v. Sipes, 52891
| Decision Date | 08 December 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 52891,52891,2 |
| Citation | 447 S.W.2d 558,35 A.L.R.3d 834 |
| Parties | Floyd T. STANDURF, Appellant, v. Donald SIPES, Administrator, Wright Memorial Hospital, et al., Respondents |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
John G. Crighton, North Kansas City, for plaintiff-appellant.
J. D. James, David R. Odegard, James, McCanse & Larison, Kansas City, for defendants-respondents.
STOCKARD, Commissioner.
By his fourth amended petition plaintiff sought compensatory and punitive damages in an amount exceeding $400,000. The trial court entered summary judgment for defendants and plaintiff has appealed.
We shall set forth a brief statement of the events and circumstances giving rise to plaintiff's claim for damages which we have determined from a consideration of the allegations of the petition, and from various depositions and exhibits before the trial court. After visiting with his children in Trenton, Missouri, on February 26, 1962, plaintiff started to drive back to Mercer, Missouri, a distance of approximately thirty miles. The temperature was in the neighborhood of zero degrees. When plaintiff had traveled about two miles he developed a 'terrible headache' and 'started blacking out.' He stated in his deposition that he had been taking some medicine and that this may have been the cause of his condition. He stopped his automobile, but apparently left the lights on. During the night he regained consciousness but could not start his automobile because the battery had run down. He remained in the automobile until the next morning when he obtained transportation on a school bus to Trenton, and he went to the home of his eldest daughter. She called Dr. Oliver Duffy who determined that plaintiff's feet had been frozen. He administered some treatment and told plaintiff that he would 'have to have medical treatment,' and that he would try to get him admitted to the Wright Memorial Hospital located at Trenton. The next morning Dr. Duffy returned and told plaintiff that he could not get him admitted to the hospital unless plaintiff paid in advance a $25 admittance fee which plaintiff did not have.
In the depositions there is some indefiniteness as to what was thereafter said and what subsequently occurred. However, plaintiff stated in his deposition that his son-in-law went to see Mr. Donald Sipes, the administrator of the hospital, and offered to pay the $25 but that admission to the hospital was still refused. Plaintiff's daughter got in touch with the sheriff of the county who in turn called Mr. Sipes. Mr. Sipes admitted that the sheriff called him, and he also stated that Mr. A. L. Palmer, a local minister, called on him in behalf of plaintiff, and that Mr. Palmer stated 'that the church had an emergency fund from which it was possible they could take $25,' but according to Mr. Sipes, it was 'not in the form of an offer.' However, Mr. Sipes admitted that he understood that Mr. Palmer would pay the $25 if that would 'help the situation.' Mr. Sipes also testified that when Dr. Duffy called him he asked if plaintiff would be eligible as a charity patient, and he stated to Mr. Sipes 'that it would be an amputation.' It also appears that an appeal to Mr. Sipes on behalf of plaintiff was made by some unidentified lady and by the mayor of Trenton. During cross-examination Mr. Sipes testified, in effect, that when a patient paid the $25 admission fee he was accepted without question and it would be assumed he 'would be a paying patient,' and he would later be billed, but that the hospital did experience some 'bad debts.'
Mr. Sipes further testified on deposition that he 'took the request (of Dr. Duffy for the admission of plaintiff to the hospital) to the Board of Trustees' of the hospital, and they told him that plaintiff was 'not eligible,' but it appears that he contacted only one member of that board, Mr. W. W. Alexander, Sr., the chairman. This determination of ineligibility apparently was based on the terms of a charitable trust, referred to subsequently, and as stated by Mr. Sipes, 'If the person does not live in the county (Grundy), they (sic) are not eligible for charity.' It is not clear if the position of Mr. Sipes and Mr. Alexander was that the hospital was prohibited from accepting charity patients from outside of Grundy County, or if the hospital refused to do so as a matter of policy. We note, however, that plaintiff alleges that he was a resident of Grundy County.
Plaintiff was not admitted to the Wright Memorial Hospital. In the meantime, apparently through the efforts of Dr. Duffy, other arrangements for medical care were being sought. Applications to the University of Iowa Hospital and to another hospital referred to in the deposition as 'Broadlawns' were not successful. One or both of these hospitals apparently declined to accept plaintiff on the basis that he was not a resident of Iowa. A request for admission to the University of Missouri Hospital was unsuccessful, and Dr. Duffy reported to plaintiff that the reason was that the hospital could not 'handle' him. Through the efforts of Mr. Palmer, and possibly others, on March 4, admission of plaintiff was obtained to the University of Kansas Medical Center, although there apparently was no contention that plaintiff was a resident of Kansas. After therapy treatments at the medical center proved to be unsuccessful, both of plaintiff's feet were amputated.
Wright Memorial Hospital is the only hospital in the immediate area. It is operated by the Trenton Trust Company pursuant to an 'Irrevocable Trust Areement' executed in 1932 by Dr. J. B. Wright. By that trust agreement Dr. Wright conveyed the title of property known as the Wright Hospital to the Trenton Trust Company as trustee, and it was therein provided that the property should constitute a trust 'to be applied to the maintenance of a hospital and training school for nurses to be used for the gratuitous treatment of medical and surgical diseases of the sick poor, as herein provided, or for such other charitable purposes as herein set forth.' In the provision pertaining to the appointment of a general staff for the management of the hospital, it was provided that 'the expenses incident to the operation of the hospital shall be minimized as far as possible without imparing the efficiency and effectiveness of the said Hospital to the end that as many free patients as possible may be served and as much good as possible be accomplished by said Hospital.' The General Staff was to have full and complete charge of the affairs of the hospital, but the 'purpose of this Trust' was declared to be 'to give free hospital, surgical, and medical care to as many poor sick of the City of Trenton, Missouri, or of Grundy County, Missouri, as possible.' The Trenton Trust Company receives fees as trustee 'in the neighborhood of $500 a month.' At the time plaintiff sought admission to the hospital, Mr. W. W. Alexander, Sr., was chairman of the General Staff of the hospital and also chairman of the board of directors of the Trenton Trust Company.
Prior to the incident giving rise to plaintiff's claim, Wright Memorial Hospital applied for federal funds under what is known as the Hill-Burton Act. Federal funds in the amount of $70,000 were eventually paid, but it is not certain from the record that they were paid prior to February 26, 1962. Subsequently, additional federal funds were made available to the hospital under the Hill-Burton Act. The applications for these funds were processed through a state agency, and in connection with the applications the state agency certified that Wright Memorial Hospital was a voluntary nonprofit institution, and that it had 'given assurance that a reasonable volume of free patient care will be provided in the proposed facility.' Its service area was stated to be Grundy and Mercer Counties. A detailed statement of the provisions of the applications, and the allowance of the Hill-Burton funds can be found in Stanturf v. Sipes, D.C., 224 F.Supp. 883.
The theory upon which the trial court sustained defendant's motion is not disclosed by the record. The language of the motion was that 'there is no genuine issue of material fact, and defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.' The order of the trial court was only that the motion was 'sustained and judgment for defendant entered thereon.'
Summary judgment is authorized...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Bowden ex rel. Bowden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
...Gen. Hosp. v. Manlove, 174 A.2d 135 (Del.1961); New Biloxi Hosp., Inc. v. Frazier, 245 Miss. 185, 146 So.2d 882 (1962); Stanturf v. Sipes, 447 S.W.2d 558 (Mo.1969); Fabian v. Matzko, 236 Pa.Super. 267, 344 A.2d 569 Moreover, it is quite likely that the Alabama Supreme Court would interpret ......
-
Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County 8212 847
...Working Rules for Assuring Nondiscrimination in Hospital Administration, 74 Yale L.J. 151, 156 n. 32 (1964); cf., e.g., Stanturf v. Sipes, 447 S.W.2d 558 (Mo.1969) (hospital refused treatment to frostbite victim who was unable to pay $25 deposit). See generally HEW Report on Medical Resourc......
-
Buckler v. U.S.
...for a state-law, private-analogue duty, focusing primarily on the Good Samaritan Doctrine as adopted in Missouri. See Stanturf v. Sipes, 447 S.W.2d 558, 561–62 (Mo. 1969) ; Kraus v. Hy-Vee, Inc., 147 S.W.3d 907, 925 (Mo. Ct. App. 2004). A key requirement for liability under this doctrine is......
-
Davis v. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 288
...Hospital v. Manlove, 174 A.2d 135 (Del.1961); Williams v. Hospital Authority, 119 Ga.App. 626, 168 S.E.2d 336 (1969); Stanturf v. Sipes, 447 S.W.2d 558 (Mo.1969); Valdez v. Lyman-Roberts Hospital, 638 S.W.2d 111 (Tex.App.1982); Mercy Medical Center of Oshkosh v. Winnebago County, 58 Wis.2d ......