Lead Opinion
Following Schloendorff v. New York Hosp. (
The plaintiff, Isabel Bing, was severely burned during the course of an operation, performed at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital by her own physician, for correction of a fissure of the anus. She had been made ready for the operation, before the surgeon’s appearance, by the hospital anesthetist and by two nurses also in the employ of the hospital. Preparatory to administering spinal anesthesia, the anesthetist painted the lumbar region of the patient’s back with an alcoholic antiseptic, tincture of zephiran, an inflammable fluid, reddish in color. Again, after induction of the spinal anesthesia, one of the nurses applied the zephiran solution to the operative area. At that time there were three layers of sheeting under the patient.
The nurses were fully aware that the inflammable antiseptic employed was potentially dangerous. They acknowledged that they had been instructed, not only to exercise care to see that none of the fluid dropped on the linen, but to inspect it and remove any that had become stained or contaminated. However, they made no inspection, and the sheets originally placed under the patient remained on the table throughout the operation.
The surgeon was not in the operating room when the antiseptic was applied and at least 15 minutes elapsed before he initiated the preoperative draping process. The draping completed, the doctor took a heated electric cautery and touched it to the fissure to mark it before beginning the actual searing of the tissue. There was a “ smell of very hot singed linen ” and, “ without waiting to see a flame or smoke ”, he doused the area with water. Assured that the fire was out, he proceeded with the operation. Subsequent examination of the patient revealed severe burns on her body, later inspection of the linen, several holes burned through the sheet under her.
In the action thereafter brought against the hospital and the surgeon to recover for the injuries suffered, there was a verdict against both. As to the hospital, with whose liability we are alone concerned, the court charged that that defendant could be held liable only if plaintiff’s injuries occurred through the
As is apparent, the liability asserted against the hospital is predicated on an independent act or omission of the hospital-employed nurses, and not on any conduct of theirs ordered or directed by a visiting doctor or surgeon or, for that matter, by any physician. The evidence strongly supports the findings, implicit in the jury’s verdict, that some of the inflammable zephiran solution had dropped on the sheet beneath the plaintiff’s body, that it had left a stain discoverable upon inspection, that the nurses in attendance had had full opportunity, before the beginning of the operation, to remove the stained linen and that the solution (which had dropped on the sheet) had given off a gaseous vapor that ignited upon contact with the heated cautery. In the light of these facts, the jury was thoroughly justified in concluding that the failure of the nurses to remove the contaminated vapor-producing linen constituted the plainest sort of negligence.
But, contends the hospital, such negligence occurred during the performance of a “ medical ’ ’ act and, accordingly, under the so-called Schloendorff rule, the doctrine of respondeat superior may not be applied to subject it to liability. The difficulty of differentiating between the “medical” and the “ administrative ” in this context, highlighted as it is by the disagreement of the judges below, is thus brought into sharp focus.
That difficulty has long plagued the courts and, indeed, as consideration of a few illustrative cases reveals, a consistent and clearly defined distinction between the terms has proved to be highly elusive. Placing an improperly capped hot water bottle on a patient’s body is administrative (Iacono v. New York Polyclinic Med. School & Hosp.,
From distinctions such as these there is to be educed neither guiding principle nor clear delineation of policy; they cannot help but cause confusion, cannot help but create doubt and uncertainty. And, while the failure of the nurses in the present case to inspect and remove the contaminated linen might, perhaps, be denominated an administrative default, we do not consider it either wise or necessary again to become embroiled in an overnice disputation as to whether it should be labeled administrative or medical. The distinctions, it has been noted, were the result of “ a judicial policy of compromise between the doctrines of respondeat superior and total immunity for charitable institutions.” (Bobbé, Tort Liability of Hospitals in New York, 37 Corn. L. Q. 419, 438.) The better to understand the problem presented, a brief backward glance into historical beginnings proves profitable.
The doctrine declaring charitable institutions immune from liability was first declared in this country in 1876. (McDonald v. Massachusetts Gen. Hosp.,
Although it was not the first ease to deal with the general subject in this state, Schloendorff v. New York Hosp. (supra,
The Schloendorff rule has pursued an inconstant course, riddled with numerous exceptions and subjected to various qualifications and refinements.
The cases to which we have adverted do not merely illustrate fluctuation of doctrine and the vicissitudes of judgment. They rather demonstrate the inherent incongruity of the immunity rule itself. A distinction unique in the law should rest on stronger foundations than those advanced. Indeed, the first ground stated in Schloendorff, namely, that there is a waiver by the patient of his right to recover for negligent injury, has long been abandoned as “logically weak” and “pretty much a fiction.” (Phillips v. Buffalo Gen. Hosp.,
Nor may the exemption be justified by the fear, the major impetus originally behind the doctrine, that the imposition of liability will do irreparable harm to the charitable hospital. At the time the rule originated, in the middle of the nineteenth century, not only was there the possibility that a substantial award in a single negligence action might destroy the hospital, but concern was felt that a ruling permitting recovery against the funds of charitable institutions might discourage generosity and ‘‘ constrain * * * [them], as a measure of self-protection, to limit their activities.” (Schloendorff v. New York Hosp., supra,
Although we have hitherto refrained from pronouncing “ the ultimate fate ” of the Schloendorff rule (Becker v. City of New York, supra, 2 N Y 2d 226, 235; Berg v. New York Soc. for Relief of Ruptured & Crippled, supra, 1 N Y 2d 499, 503), we have long indicated our dissatisfaction with it, and only last year, in further expanding the hospital’s liability, the court posed this searching and suggestive question (1 N Y 2d 499, 502): “What reason compels us to say that of all employees
The doctrine of respondeat superior is grounded on firm principles of law and justice. Liability is the rule, immunity the exception. It is not too much to expect that those who serve and minister to members of the public should do so, as do all others, subject to that principle and within the obligation not to injure through carelessness. It is not alone good morals but sound law that individuals and organizations should be just before they are generous, and there is no reason why that should not apply to charitable hospitals. “ Charity suffereth long and is kind, but in the common law it cannot be careless. When it is, it ceases to be kindness and becomes actionable wrongdoing.” (President & Directors of Georgetown Coll. v. Hughes, supra,
The conception that the hospital does not undertake to treat the patient, does not undertake to act through its doctors and nurses, but undertakes instead simply to procure them to act upon their own responsibility, no longer reflects the fact. Present-day hospitals, as their manner of operation plainly demonstrates, do far more than furnish facilities for treatment. They regularly employ on a salary basis a large staff of physicians, nurses and internes, as well as administrative and manual workers, and they charge patients for medical care and treatment, collecting for such services, if necessary, by legal action. Certainly, the person who avails himself of “ hospital facilities ” expects that the hospital will attempt to cure him, not that its nurses or other employees will act on their own responsibility.
Hospitals should, in short, shoulder the responsibilities borne by everyone else. There is no reason to continue their exemption from the universal rule of respondeat superior. The test should be, for these institutions, whether charitable or profit-making, as it is for every other employer, was the person who committed the negligent injury-producing act one of its
The rule of nonliability is out of tune with the life about us, at variance with modern-day needs and with concepts of justice and fair dealing. It should be discarded. To the suggestion that stare decisis compels us to perpetuate it until the legislature acts, a ready answer is at hand. It was intended, not to effect a “petrifying rigidity,” but to assure the justice that flows from certainty and stability. If, instead, adherence to precedent offers not justice but unfairness, not certainty but doubt and confusion, it loses its right to survive, and no principle constrains us to follow it. On the contrary, as this court, speaking through Judge Desmond in Woods v. Lancet (
In sum, then, the doctrine according the hospital an immunity for the negligence of its employees is such a rule, and we abandon it. The hospital’s liability must be governed by the same principles of law as apply to all other employers.
The judgment of the Appellate Division should be reversed and a new trial granted, with costs to abide the event.
Notes
. This historical item prompted one court, which recently abandoned the immunity doctrine, to say: “ Ordinarily, when a court decides to modify or abandon a court-made rule of long standing, it starts out by saying that ‘the reason for the rule no longer exists.’ In this case, it is correct to say that the ‘reason’ originally given for the rule of immunity never did exist.” (Pierce v. Yakima Val. Mem. Hosp. Assn.,
. See, e.g., Matter of Bernstein v. Beth Israel Hosp. (
. See President & Directors of Georgetown Coll. v. Hughes (supra,
. See Ray v. Tucson Med. Center (
And, it is worthy of note, there is general agreement among text writers and other commentators that the rule of immunity should be abandoned and the doctrine of respondeat superior reaffirmed to render the hospital liable for the torts of its employees. (See, e.g., 4 Scott, op. cit., § 402, p. 2893 et seq.) 2A Bogert on Trusts and Trustees [1953], § 401, pp. 241-254; Prosser on Torts [2d ed., 1955], § 109, p. 786 et seq.) 2 Harper and James on The Law of Torts [1956], p. 1937, n. 9; Bobbé, supra, 37 Corn. L. Q. 419; Feezer, The Tort Liability of Charities, 77 U. of Pa, L. Rev, 191; Note, 163 Journal Amer. Med. Assn. 283, 285.)
Concurrence Opinion
(concurring). I concur in result.
I regret my inability to concur in the opinion of Judge Fttld. I think that, as Judge Fuld points out on page 661 of his opinion, “ the failure of the nurses * # * to inspect and remove the contaminated linen might, perhaps, be denominated an administrative default * # I think that it was an administrative default, and that the hospital should be held to be responsible under the reasoning of the many authorities cited and collated in Judge Fuld’s opinion. We should stop there and not go on to overrule the doctrine of Schloendorff v. New York Hosp. (
Judgment reversed, etc.