Hasbun v. United States (Summary)

NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION

Hasbun v. United States, No. 12 C 2543 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 17, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a lawsuit brought against a Medical Center and the United States Public Health Service (“the U.S.”) by a patient who alleged inappropriate touching during a gynecological examination and, in turn, negligence and negligent supervision by the Medical Center and the U.S. due to their failure to require physicians to have chaperones present during such examinations.

In dismissing the patient’s claims, the court noted that a claim of negligent supervision under Illinois law requires the patient to allege that the employer (in this case the U.S.) knew or should have known that the physician had a particular unfitness for his position so as to create a danger of harm to third persons.  The patient in this case failed to make any allegations that the Medical Center or U.S. had knowledge of the physician’s propensity to commit sexual assault.

In dismissing the negligence claim, the court noted that duty is an essential element of any such claim.  In this case, the patient’s only allegation of duty was that the Medical Center and U.S. should have had a policy requiring chaperones to be present.  But the patient failed to cite any authority for such a duty, other than an AMA guideline stating that chaperones should be available on request.  And even if the AMA guideline created a duty, the patient failed to allege that she requested a chaperone.  Accordingly, the court dismissed the patient’s complaint for failure to plead facts sufficient to state a claim, but gave leave for the patient to amend her complaint.