126 Ky. 288 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1907
Opinion of the Court by
Reversing.
Appellant has established at Paducah, Ky., a. hospital, known as the “Illinois Central Railroad Hospital,” to which are sent as a part of its system of policy all sick, disabled, and injured' employes on the lines of its road in the vicinity of Paducah. It was
Appellee, an employe entitled to admission, was injured in the service of appellant, and sent to the ¡hospital for treatment. In this action he sought to recover damages from appellant upon the ground that the surgeons and attendants who waited upon and cared for him during the time he was confined in the hospital were incompetent and unskilled, and treated his wounds in an unskillful and grossly negligent manner, causing him to suffer great mental and physical pain and incur large expense in attempting to remedy the injuries he received by the negligence and carelessness of the persons who had charge of him. Appellant answered, controverting the matter in the petition, and affirmatively set up that the hospital was a corporation and entirely independent of the railroad company, and the railroad company was not responsible for the acts or conduct of any of the persons in charge of it. Upon a trial of the ease, a verdict was returned in favor of the appellee., and the railroad company prosecutes this appeal. The ease is now before us on a petition for rehearing; the judgmnt of the lower court having been reversed by this court in an opinion which may be found in 88 S. W. 312, 27 Ky. Law Rep. 1193.
We gather from the record, and the principal opin
Upon a reconsideration of the questions at issue,
In addtion to the instructions given on the former trial, the court on another trial of the case should instruct the jury in substance that, if they believe from the evidence that the railroad company or its agents selected or appointed the physicians, surgeons, or attendants at the hospital, then it was its duty to exercise reasonable care in selecting and appointing persons competent and skillful in the profession or business for which they were employed, and, if it failed to exercise reasonable care and skill in this respect, and Buchanan was injured by reason thereof, they should find for him.
Either party should be allowed to file such amended pleadings as may be necessary to fairly present this new issue.
The former opinion of this court is withdrawn, and the judgment of the lower court is reversed, with