Opinion
May 4, 1964. Reargued November 18, 1964.
March 22, 1965.
Torts — Charitable organizations — Hospitals — Tort liability — Immunity — Abolition of immunity.
1. A hospital, which is a charitable organization, is subject to liability to a patient who suffers personal injuries as the result of the hospital's negligence. [533-4]
2. Flagiello v. Pennsylvania Hospital, 417 Pa. 486, followed. [534]
Mr. Chief Justice BELL filed a dissenting opinion.
Mr. JUSTICE JONES dissented.
Before BELL, C. J., MUSMANNO, JONES, COHEN, EAGEN, O'BRIEN and ROBERTS, JJ.
Appeal, No. 225, Jan. T., 1964, from order of Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, Oct. T., 1963, No. 1382, in case of Helen Siewicz v. Wyoming Valley Hospital and Barbara Runchka. Order reversed.
Trespass for personal injuries.
The complaint alleged that on September 29, 1961 "plaintiff was a patient in defendant's hospital" and a student nurse "negligently injected into the left buttock of the plaintiff a hypodermic syringe containing demerol" "in such a way as to traumatize the sciatic nerve"; and that this caused severe painful injuries, permanent disability, and other specified damages. The parties stipulated that the defendant hospital was and is "an eleemosynary and charitable institution". The hospital filed a preliminary objection in the nature of a demurrer, pleading that it "is not subject to liability in tort". The court sustained the demurrer, following the rule of charitable immunity restated in Michael v. Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia (1961) 404 Pa. 424, and dismissed the complaint, in an opinion by BROMINSKI, J. Plaintiff appealed.
John G. Zapotok, with him Joseph V. Kasper, for appellant.
James P. Harris, Jr., for hospital, appellee.
Reversed. Flagiello v. Pennsylvania Hospital, 417 Pa. 486, 208 A.2d 193.
Mr. Justice JONES dissents.
I dissent for the reasons set forth at great length in my dissenting Opinion in Flagiello v. Pennsylvania Hospital, 417 Pa. 486, 208 A.2d 193.