CORPORATE NEGLIGENCE

Zambino v. Hosp. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, Civil Action
No. 06-3561 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 26, 2006)

A patient and his wife contended that the patient contracted an incurable Hepatitis B infection through a blood transfusion during prostate cancer surgery at the defendant hospital. He subsequently sued the hospital, the hospital’s trustees, the hospital’s “health system,” the urologic
surgery practice group that treated him, individual doctors and nurses who were involved in his case, and the American National Red Cross, which supplied the blood.

Claims included corporate negligence against the hospital, the hospital’s trustees, the hospital system and a hospital practice group and requests for punitive damages. All defendants (except the Red Cross) moved to dismiss the corporate negligence counts against the hospital’s trustees, the hospital system and the practice group and the demand for punitive damages.

The federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that the plaintiff stated causes of action sufficient to overcome the defendants’ motion to dismiss. It held that, although the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not addressed the extension of corporate liability to medical providers other than hospitals, other courts have extended the doctrine of corporate liability to other entities in limited circumstances, such as when the patient is constrained in his or her choice of medical care options by the entity sued, and the entity controls the patient’s total health care. Therefore, the plaintiffs were entitled to  establish a factual record to support the applicability of this theory of liability to the various hospital entities or affiliates they named as defendants. It also found that the plaintiff properly pled a claim for punitive damages.

The defendants’ motion was denied.