O'Brien v. American Casualty Co.

Citations

• 58 Wash. 477
• 109 P. 52
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 959

Syllabus

<p>Trial—Verdicts—Judgment—Conformity to Verdict—Hospital Associations'—Malpractice. In an action for malpractice against a physician, and a hospital association and its successor by whom he was employed at different periods of plaintiff’s treatment, a verdict against the hospital association separately for $2,000, against its successor for $4,000, and against the physician individually for $1,000, does not authorize a joint and several judgment against all the defendants for $7,000, nor against the physician for said sum, nor a joint judgment against any two of them, when read in the light of the court’s instructions to the jury that they might bring in separate verdicts against the hospital association and its successors for negligence other than that of the physician, and against the physician individually for negligence while not acting as agent; nor a joint verdict against the hospital association and the physician for his negligence during one period of the treatment while the physician was in its employ, a joint verdict against the successor and the physician for another period while in its employ, and a verdict against the physician individually while not in the employ of either.</p> <p>Trial—Verdicts—Conflicting Findings—Hospital Associations —Malpractice—Joint and Several Liability. In an action for malpractice against a physician and a hospital association and its successor by whom he was employed at different periods of the plaintiff’s treatment, in which the gravamen was the negligence and incompetence of the physician, the verdict is unsupported by the evidence and conflicting and there was a substantial mistrial, requiring a new trial, where the court instructed the jury that they might bring in separate verdicts against the hospital association and its successors for negligence other than that of the physician, and against the physician individually for negligence while not acting as agent, or a joint verdict against the hospital association and the