Kuchera v. Jersey Shore Family Health Ctr. (Summary)

CHARITABLE IMMUNITY

Kuchera v. Jersey Shore Family Health Ctr., No. A-2155-12T3 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. Oct. 10, 2013)

The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, affirmed the dismissal of a negligence claim against a family health center, which is a subsidiary of a hospital, holding that the center was properly afforded blanket charitable immunity under a state statute.

The plaintiff, who was an attendee at a free eye screening event at the family health center being put on by a separate entity, the Commission for the Blind, slipped and fell at the center.  The plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the family health center, among others, the center moved for summary judgment, arguing that it was not liable based on the state charitable immunity statute, and the trial court granted the motion based on the center being entitled to blanket charitable immunity.  The plaintiff appealed.

The appeals court upheld the judgment of the trial court.  The issue on appeal was whether the family health center was organized exclusively for hospital purposes.  If the family health center was not organized exclusively for hospital purposes, it would not be liable since it would be entitled to blanket charitable immunity.  However, if the family health center was organized exclusively for hospital purposes, it would be liable for up to $250,000.

The appeals court found that the family health center was not organized exclusively for hospital purposes, since it provides free charitable care to the community, is open to the public, turns no one away because of an inability to pay, and “[e]ven more to the point, the [center] lends its facility to other entities, such as the Commission for the Blind, so that the community can be afforded other beneficial services, such as the free eye screening event, to improve its members’ health and well-being.  This was the very purpose for which the [center] was being used when the plaintiff sustained her injury.  We conclude that such a function is not a ‘hospital.’”