Schelling v. Humphrey

[Cite as Schelling v. Humphrey, 123 Ohio St.3d 387, 2009-Ohio-4175.]

SCHELLING ET AL., APPELLEES, v. HUMPHREY; COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF

WILLIAMS COUNTY, APPELLANT.

[Cite as Schelling v. Humphrey, 123 Ohio St.3d 387, 2009-Ohio-4175.]

Negligent credentialing — Medical malpractice — Bifurcation of claims —

Plaintiffs may pursue negligent-credentialing claim against hospital when

doctor is no longer amenable to suit for medical malpractice because of

bankruptcy.

(No. 2007-2202 — Submitted October 7, 2008 — Decided August 26, 2009.)

APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Williams County, No. WM-07-001,

2007-Ohio-5469.

__________________

CUPP, J.

{¶ 1} This case presents the issue of whether a plaintiff can pursue a

negligent-credentialing claim against a hospital without a prior finding that the

plaintiff’s injury was caused by the negligence of an independent-contractor

physician, when the physician who is the subject of the negligent-credentialing

claim has filed for bankruptcy protection.

{¶ 2} Plaintiffs, Loretta and Brent Schelling, sued Dr. Stephen

Humphrey for medical malpractice arising out of two surgeries he performed on

Loretta Schelling’s feet at the Community Hospital of Williams County. The

Schellings also sued the hospital for negligently granting staff privileges to

Humphrey.

{¶ 3} After Humphrey filed a petition in bankruptcy, the Schellings

dismissed their claims against him without prejudice. The hospital then moved to

dismiss the negligent-credentialing claim, arguing that to prevail upon such a

claim, the Schellings must first show that Loretta Schelling’s injury was caused

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by Humphrey’s negligence. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss, but the

Sixth District Court of Appeals reversed. The appellate court held that the element

of the doctor’s negligence could be proven without the doctor being named as a

party in the case. The hospital sought review in this court, and we accepted the

hospital’s appeal.

{¶ 4} Because the physician’s bankruptcy filing impeded the Schellings

from pursuing their claim against the physician through no fault of their own, we

conclude that in the unusual circumstances of this case, the Schellings may pursue

their negligent-credentialing claim against the hospital by first proving that

Humphrey was negligent and that his negligence was the proximate cause of

Loretta Schelling’s injury.

I

A

{¶ 5} Loretta Schelling saw defendant Humphrey for foot pain. To

address her foot pain, he performed two tarsal tunnel release surgeries on her

heels, one on January 23, 2003, and the other on February 20, 2003, at defendant-

appellant hospital. Schelling alleged that she has continued to experience foot

pain and has suffered a permanent and partially disabling condition. The

Schellings sued Humphrey and the hospital, alleging that Loretta Schelling’s

ongoing foot pain was the result of complications from the two surgeries

Humphrey had performed and that Humphrey had committed malpractice in those

surgeries. Brent Schelling also alleged a claim of loss of consortium.

{¶ 6} The Schellings then amended their complaint to assert a negligent-

credentialing claim against the Community Hospital of Williams County. The

Schellings alleged that the hospital failed to adequately review and evaluate

Humphrey’s education, character, and fitness to practice medicine and his past

performance as a doctor and that the hospital’s negligent granting of staff

privileges to Humphrey caused Loretta Schelling’s injuries.

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{¶ 7} Humphrey and the hospital denied the allegations. The hospital

moved to bifurcate the negligent-credentialing claim and the Schellings’ medical-

malpractice claim against the doctor. The hospital argued that the negligent-

credentialing claim did not become ripe until the doctor’s negligence was

determined, so the trial should be bifurcated and the negligent-credentialing claim

stayed until the Schellings obtained a finding of negligence against the doctor.

The trial court granted the motion to bifurcate the trial over the Schellings’

opposition but denied the motion to stay the negligent-credentialing claim.

{¶ 8} Humphrey then filed a petition for bankruptcy. Upon receiving

notice of that petition, the trial court stayed the proceedings in this case in

accordance with the automatic stay of claims in a pending bankruptcy case

required by Section 362(a), Title 11, U.S.Code. Thereafter, the Schellings

dismissed their action against Humphrey without prejudice on October 30, 2006.

(No document reflecting the terms of any settlement of the claim against

Humphrey with the bankruptcy trustee was filed in this case, although the

Schellings acknowledged that a “settlement has been reached to some extent with

the Bankruptcy Trustee for Dr. Humphrey.”1) The Schellings then requested that

the stay of the common pleas court action be lifted, given the dismissal of

Humphrey from the case, and the trial court granted the motion. The bankruptcy

court later granted Humphrey a discharge in bankruptcy. By that order, any

attempt to collect a discharged debt from Humphrey was prohibited. See generally

Section 524(a)(2), Title 11, U.S.Code. (The parties do not dispute that the

discharge applied to the Schellings’ claims against Humphrey.)

{¶ 9} After the stay was lifted in the trial court, the hospital moved to

dismiss the negligent-credentialing claim. The hospital argued that, to its

knowledge, the bankruptcy court had not found that Humphrey was negligent in

1. No issue of contribution or indemnity is before us in this case.

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his treatment of Loretta Schelling and that Humphrey had not admitted

negligence, and without such a finding, the negligent-credentialing claim could

not be established. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss, holding that

without a finding or an admission that the doctor was negligent, the Schellings

could not proceed on the negligent-credentialing claim. The Schellings appealed.

B

{¶ 10} The Sixth District Court of Appeals reversed. That court concluded

that the Schellings were not precluded from maintaining their negligent-

credentialing claim because they could establish the element of the doctor’s

negligence even if the doctor was not a party to the case. Schelling v. Humphrey,

6th Dist. No. WM-07-001, 2007-Ohio-5469, ¶ 16-17. The court of appeals

rejected the hospital’s argument that a finding of the doctor’s negligence is a legal

prerequisite to a negligent-credentialing claim. Id. at ¶ 18. The hospital appealed

to this court, and we granted review. 117 Ohio St.3d 1423, 2008-Ohio-969, 882

N.E.2d 444.

II

{¶ 11} The issue in this case is whether a plaintiff can proceed on a

negligent-credentialing claim against a hospital without a prior finding, either by

adjudication or stipulation, that the plaintiff’s injury was caused by the

physician’s malpractice.

A

{¶ 12} This issue requires us to review the general principles in our cases

involving the relationship between an independent doctor and the hospital when

the doctor has been granted staff privileges. The parties do not dispute that

Humphrey was an independent contractor, not an employee of the hospital.

{¶ 13} Doctors with staff privileges generally have the right to admit their

own private patients to the hospital and the right to use the hospital’s facilities.

Albain v. Flower Hosp. (1990), 50 Ohio St.3d 251, 256, 553 N.E.2d 1038, fn. 5,

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citing Classen, Hospital Liability for Independent Contractors: Where Do We Go

from Here? (1987), 40 Ark.L.Rev. 469, 478, fn. 44, overruled in part on other

grounds by Clark v. Southview Hosp. & Family Health Ctr. (1994), 68 Ohio St.3d

435, 628 N.E.2d 46. While the hospital has the power to grant and revoke staff

privileges and establish policies and procedures regarding patient care,

“accredited hospitals must allow their staff physicians ‘to provide patient care

services independently within the scope of their clinical privileges.’ ” Albain, 50

Ohio St.3d at 256, 553 N.E.2d 1038, quoting Joint Commission on Accreditation

of Hospitals, Accreditation Manual for Hospitals: 1986 Edition (1985) 101.

{¶ 14} Ohio law requires hospitals to set standards and procedures to be

applied. See R.C. 3701.351(A). But “only licensed physicians, not hospitals, are

permitted to practice medicine or surgery in this state.” Albain, 50 Ohio St.3d at

259, 553 N.E.2d 1038, citing R.C. 4731.41.

{¶ 15} A hospital does not need “to constantly supervise and second-

guess the activities of its physicians,” or to “ ‘pass upon the efficacy of

treatment’ ” or “ ‘decide for a doctor whether an operation is necessary.’ ” Id. at

259, 553 N.E.2d 1038, quoting Hendrickson v. Hodkin (1937), 250 App.Div. 619,

621, 294 N.Y.S. 982, 984-985 (Lazansky, J., dissenting), reversed (1937), 276

N.Y. 252, 11 N.E.2d 899. Nor is a hospital an insurer of the skills of the private

doctors to whom it has granted staff privileges. Id. at paragraph two of the

syllabus.

{¶ 16} This court’s jurisprudence recognizes generally that an employer is

not vicariously liable for the negligence of an independent contractor, since the

employer has no right to control the mode and manner used by the independent

contractor to perform the work. Clark, 68 Ohio St.3d at 438, 628 N.E.2d 46; see

also Comer v. Risko, 106 Ohio St.3d 185, 2005-Ohio-4559, 833 N.E.2d 712, ¶ 18.

Accordingly, a hospital’s mere granting of privileges to a doctor, which the

hospital may later revoke under its procedures, does not permit a court to hold the

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hospital liable for the doctor’s negligent acts under a theory of respondeat

superior, or vicarious liability. Albain, 50 Ohio St.3d 251, 553 N.E.2d 1038,

paragraph one of the syllabus.

{¶ 17} However, we also have held that a hospital has a direct duty to

grant and continue staff privileges only to competent doctors. Id. at paragraph two

of the syllabus. Thus, a hospital has a duty to remove “a known incompetent.” Id.

at 258.

{¶ 18} To prove a negligent-credentialing claim, a plaintiff injured by the

negligence of a staff doctor must show that but for the lack of care in the selection

or retention of the doctor, the doctor would not have been granted staff privileges,

and the plaintiff would not have been injured. Albain, 50 Ohio St.3d 251, 553

N.E.2d 1038, paragraph two of the syllabus.2

{¶ 19} The parties to this case do not dispute that to recover against a

hospital on a negligent-credentialing claim, the plaintiff must establish the

underlying medical malpractice of the doctor. The required element of the

plaintiff’s injury having been caused by the doctor’s malpractice goes to the

question of whether the hospital’s alleged negligent credentialing of the doctor

proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury. “Although medical malpractice claims

against the doctor and negligent credentialing claims against the hospital are

separate causes of action, * * * both causes of action fail without proof that the

physician’s failure to abide by ordinary standards of care proximately caused the

patient’s harm.” Browning v. Burt (1993), 66 Ohio St.3d 544, 566, 613 N.E.2d

993 (Moyer, C.J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).

B

2. This case arose before the April 9, 2003 effective date of Sub.S.B. No. 179, 149 Ohio Laws,

Part II, 3596, 3602, which amended former R.C. 2305.25, now R.C. 2305.251, to provide for

rebuttable presumptions applicable to negligent-credentialing claims against a hospital. The

amended statute is not before us.

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{¶ 20} The parties sharply dispute when a doctor’s malpractice must be

determined in regard to a negligent-credentialing claim. The hospital contends

that the doctor must be found negligent before a negligent-credentialing claim can

proceed against the hospital. The Schellings argue that the doctor’s negligence

may be proved in the same case and at the same time as the negligent-

credentialing claim against the hospital—a case within a case. The parties also

dispute whether the hospital should be required to defend against an allegation

that an independent-contractor doctor committed malpractice when the doctor is

not (and cannot be made) a party to the case. Compare Schelling v. Humphrey, 6th

Dist. No. WM-07-001, 2007-Ohio-5469, ¶ 18 (“Determining that staff physician

negligence must be proven as an element of a negligent-credentialing claim

against an employer does not interpose a legal requirement to name the staff

physician as a defendant and prove the negligence claim in the same complaint”)

and Davis v. Immediate Med. Servs., Inc. (Dec. 12, 1995), 5th Dist. No. 94 CA

0253, 1995 WL 809478, *7, reversed in part on other grounds (1997), 80 Ohio

St.3d 10, 684 N.E.2d 292 (finding no abuse of discretion in bifurcating the

medical-malpractice issue and the negligent-credentialing issue at trial when

doctors and hospital were named parties, reasoning that “the matter * * * did not

become ripe as to the issue of negligent credentialing until and if medical

negligence was found on behalf of appellee [doctor]”[emphasis added]).

1.

{¶ 21} The hospital contends that the trial court properly dismissed this

case on the basis that a prior finding of negligence is a legal prerequisite to

maintaining a negligent-credentialing claim. The hospital relies in part on Chief

Justice Moyer’s partial dissent in Browning, 66 Ohio St.3d at 566, 613 N.E.2d

993, in which he opined that “Albain requires that the underlying malpractice of

the physician be proven before the plaintiff can recover damages against the

hospital for its own negligence [in credentialing the physician].”

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{¶ 22} But Browning did not address the issue we are called upon to

decide in this case—whether a doctor’s medical malpractice must be determined

before a hospital may be called upon to defend against a negligent-credentialing

claim. In Browning, the plaintiffs sued two doctors for medical malpractice and a

hospital for the negligent credentialing of the doctors. 66 Ohio St.3d at 545, 613

N.E.2d 993. The plaintiffs obtained a default judgment—i.e., a previous finding

of malpractice—against one doctor, but the other doctor remained a party. Id. at

554, 613 N.E.2d 993, fn. 10. We held that an action against a hospital for bodily

injury arising out of the negligent credentialing of a doctor is subject to the two-

year statute of limitations in R.C. 2305.10 rather than the one-year statute in R.C.

2305.11 that is applicable to medical-malpractice actions. Id. at paragraphs three

and four of the syllabus. Chief Justice Moyer dissented in part, reasoning that

“[w]ithout an underlying harm to the hospital’s patient through medical

malpractice, an action against the hospital for negligent credentialing will never

arise.” Id. at 566. The Chief Justice thus opined that a negligent-credentialing

claim was subject to the same one-year statute of limitations as a medical claim,

not the two-year statute of limitations as a bodily-injury claim. The ruling in

Browning regarding the statute of limitations for a negligent-credentialing claim

does not answer the question of when a finding that a plaintiff’s injury was caused

by a doctor’s medical malpractice must be made in regard to the negligent-

credentialing claim.

{¶ 23} Nor did Browning hold that a negligent-credentialing claim can be

established without the doctor being a party in the case, as the court of appeals in

this case determined. Schelling, 2007-Ohio-5469 at ¶ 14. As noted above, in

Browning, one of the doctors was still a party, and a default judgment had been

issued against the other doctor on the plaintiffs’ medical-malpractice claim. 66

Ohio St.3d at 554, 613 N.E.2d 993, fn. 10. Thus, Browning does not answer the

question here—whether the Schellings can establish the independent-contractor

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doctor’s malpractice, for the purposes of a negligent-credentialing claim, without

the doctor remaining a party in the action and without a prior finding of the

doctor’s negligence.

{¶ 24} The hospital argues that it would be inappropriate to require

hospitals to defend against a claim of an independent-contractor doctor’s

negligence when there has been no prior finding of malpractice and when the

doctor is not a party to the case. The hospital claims that such a requirement

would be inconsistent with Comer and Albain. Comer held that agency by

estoppel imposes vicarious liability on a hospital only when the independent-

contractor physician has been found liable. Albain held that a hospital may not be

held vicariously liable under respondeat superior for a doctor’s negligence merely

because the hospital granted privileges to the doctor. But the only claim against

the hospital in this case is for negligent credentialing, not agency by estoppel. The

Schellings are not arguing that the hospital is vicariously liable for the doctor’s

negligence.

{¶ 25} The hospital and its amici also contend that the effect of the court

of appeals’ ruling, which allowed the Schellings to proceed with their negligent-

credentialing claim without the physician being a named party, is to require the

hospital to defend the medical-negligence claim against Humphrey even though

the hospital did not direct or control his treatment of Schelling. Cf. Albain, 50

Ohio St.3d at 259, 553 N.E.2d 1038. The hospital asserts that it is inequitable to

require it to defend against Humphrey’s negligence because he is no longer a

party to the case and has no incentive to cooperate in the defense.3

2.

3. The hospital asserts that due to the expiration of the statute of limitations to sue for medical

malpractice, Humphrey can no longer be sued. That issue is not before us today. The hospital also

asserts that Humphrey no longer practices medicine, a matter that does not appear in the record of

this case.

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{¶ 26} In a negligent-credentialing case, when the doctor is or has been

amenable to suit, either the doctor ordinarily will have been found liable for

medical malpractice in a prior proceeding or the claim against the doctor for

medical malpractice will be joined to the claim against the hospital for negligent

credentialing. Thus, the hospital would not be required to defend against a

negligent-credentialing claim before the physician’s malpractice has been

determined, either in a prior proceeding, or as the first part of the case against

both the doctor and the hospital.

{¶ 27} The bifurcation of a negligent-credentialing claim and the

underlying medical-malpractice claim avoids the problems of jury confusion or

prejudice that may result from admitting evidence of prior acts of malpractice in a

combined trial on both claims. Evidence of prior acts of malpractice by the doctor

may be relevant to a negligent-credentialing claim, see Albain, 50 Ohio St.3d at

258, 553 N.E.2d 1038, but presents the risk of unfair prejudice in determining

whether the doctor committed malpractice, see Evid.R. 403(A).

{¶ 28} Bifurcation also allows a negligent-credentialing claim against a

hospital to be dismissed if the plaintiff does not prevail on the malpractice claim

against the doctor. If the fact-finder determines that negligence of the doctor was

not the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury, then a hospital’s grant of staff

privileges to a doctor is not the cause of the plaintiff’s injury, as required by

Albain. 50 Ohio St.3d 251, 553 N.E.2d 1038, paragraph two of the syllabus (“a

plaintiff injured by the negligence of a staff physician must demonstrate that but

for the lack of care in the selection or the retention of the physician, the physician

would not have been granted staff privileges, and the plaintiff would not have

been injured” [emphasis added]).

3.

{¶ 29} This case presents an unusual fact pattern in which the doctor

(Humphrey) is no longer amenable to suit and the Schellings were prohibited

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from pursuing a claim against him shortly after they sued him, initially because of

the automatic stay in place after he filed his bankruptcy petition. See Section

362(a), Title 11, U.S.Code (generally barring commencement or continuation of

actions against the bankruptcy debtor). The bankruptcy court’s order discharging

Humphrey’s debts also notified claimants that they could not attempt to collect

any debts that had been discharged. The Schellings did not present any document

memorializing a settlement with the bankruptcy trustee of the Schellings’

malpractice claim against Humphrey, but their lawyer represented at oral

argument that the trustee had paid them a percentage of the bankruptcy estate. The

parties do not dispute that there was no finding in the bankruptcy proceeding that

Humphrey was negligent in treating Loretta Schelling, nor did they dispute that

Humphrey did not contest the Schellings’ claim of medical malpractice in the

bankruptcy proceeding.

{¶ 30} Under the unusual circumstances of this case, where the

bankruptcy proceedings impeded the Schellings from joining the physician as a

party, we conclude that the Schellings should be permitted to prove that

Humphrey committed medical malpractice and that the alleged malpractice

caused the Schellings’ injury, as an element of their negligent-credentialing claim

against the hospital. We have held that a negligent-credentialing claim against a

hospital is not one for vicarious (or secondary) liability for the doctor’s (primary)

liability for medical malpractice and that it stems from a hospital’s direct duty to

grant and continue staff privileges only to competent doctors. Albain, 50 Ohio

St.3d 251, 553 N.E.2d 1038, paragraphs one and two of the syllabus; Browning,

66 Ohio St.3d at 556, 613 N.E.2d 993. Thus, Humphrey’s present lack of

amenability to suit does not in and of itself extinguish the Schellings’ negligent-

credentialing claim against the hospital. Accordingly, the Schellings should be

permitted to present their claim that the hospital’s alleged negligent credentialing

of Humphrey caused their injuries.

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{¶ 31} Consistent with our analysis in this opinion, however, bifurcating

the determination of whether Humphrey committed medical malpractice and the

Schellings’ negligent-credentialing claim against the hospital would appropriately

allow the fact-finder to determine whether Humphrey was negligent in his

medical treatment of Loretta Schelling before the hospital must defend against the

rest of the negligent-credentialing claim at trial. Only if the Schellings prevail on

the issue of Humphrey’s alleged malpractice should the rest of their negligent-

credentialing claim against the hospital proceed.

III

{¶ 32} Accordingly, in the usual case, either a plaintiff must obtain a prior

determination that a doctor committed medical malpractice and that the

malpractice proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury or the doctor will be a party

to the case that includes the negligent-credentialing claim against the hospital.

However, in the unusual circumstances of this case, Humphrey, the doctor, is no

longer amenable to suit because of the bankruptcy stay and discharge, and the

plaintiffs, through no fault of their own, cannot maintain their malpractice claim

against him. Therefore, the Schellings are permitted to pursue their negligent-

credentialing claim against the hospital, as discussed above.

{¶ 33} For the reasons stated in this opinion, the judgment of the court of

appeals is affirmed, and the cause is remanded to the trial court for further

proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

Judgment affirmed.

MOYER, C.J., and PFEIFER and O’CONNOR, JJ., concur.

LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’DONNELL, and LANZINGER, JJ., dissent.

__________________

LUNDBERG STRATTON, J., dissenting.

{¶ 34} I respectfully dissent. I believe that the majority is making an

exception to the law merely because of the “unusual fact pattern” of this case, i.e.,

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the allegedly negligent doctor is no longer amenable to suit because any debt to

these plaintiffs has been discharged in bankruptcy. Consequently, the hospital is

burdened with defending an allegation of negligence against a doctor who is not a

hospital employee but rather is a nonparty with no stake in the outcome and no

duty to cooperate or participate in the defense of the case.

{¶ 35} Furthermore, the majority ordered bifurcation—a tacit

acknowledgement that a finding of the doctor’s negligence, or lack thereof, must

be made prior to proceeding on the remaining elements of the negligent-

credentialing claim. As a result, the hospital is forced to defend a separate, albeit

related, allegation of negligence against a nonparty doctor before the negligent-

credentialing claim is ripe. I believe that this outcome requires the hospital to

become an insurer of the doctor, a result that is contrary to Albain v. Flower Hosp.

(1990), 50 Ohio St.3d 251, 553 N.E.2d 1038, overruled in part on other grounds,

Clark v. Southview Hosp. & Family Health Ctr. (1994), 68 Ohio St.3d 435,628

N.E.2d 46, in which we held that a hospital is not an insurer of the skills of a

private physician.

{¶ 36} The plaintiffs dismissed the doctor in this action. Unfortunately,

he is no longer amenable to a suit because of the bankruptcy discharge. I believe

that in the absence of a prior determination that he committed medical malpractice

that proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury, the plaintiff is unable to maintain a

negligent-credentialing claim against the hospital. The unusual facts of this case

do not justify creating an exception to the law for these plaintiffs and placing a

burden, not authorized by law, upon the hospital to defend an action against a

nonparty so that the plaintiffs may pursue their action against the hospital.

{¶ 37} Consequently, I dissent.

O’DONNELL and LANZINGER, JJ., concur in the foregoing opinion.

__________________

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Williams DeClark Tuschman Co., L.P.A., Chad M. Tuschman, and Peter

O. DeClark, for appellees.

Reminger Co., L.P.A., and Jeanne M. Mullin, for appellant.

Bricker & Eckler, L.L.P., Catherine M. Ballard, and Anne Marie Sferra,

urging reversal for amici curiae, Ohio Hospital Association and Ohio Osteopathic

Hospital Association.

______________________

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