Opinion ID: 1602016
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether instructions granted by the court on the potential vicarious liability of wright were hopelessly in conflict.

Text: ¶ 23. Plaintiffs argue that Instruction P-16 and DW-13A are in conflict and that granting both instructions was reversible error. Instruction P-16 states: The Court instructs the jury that in addition to his own negligence, Plaintiffs have alleged that Defendant Wright is responsible for Plaintiff's injuries under a doctrine referred to as vicarious liability. The theory behind this doctrine is that a surgeon has a non-delegable duty to ensure that proper care is given to an unconscious patient in an operating room under the surgeon's control. Under this doctrine, Defendant Wright may be held legally responsible for the negligence of nurses who were working under his direction and control or who he had a right to control. This doctrine is applicable even if Defendant Wright himself was not personally negligent. If you find from a preponderance of the evidence that other members of the operating room team were negligent and that these negligent persons were acting under the direction and control of Defendant Wright, and if you further find that such negligence proximately caused injuries to Tammy Winters, then it is your sworn duty to return a verdict against both [BCH] and Defendant Wright. Instruction DW-13A states: The Court instructs the jury that before you may hold Dr. Wright responsible for any alleged negligent act of the nurses or operating room technicians in the operating room at [BCH], you must find from a preponderance of the evidence that Dr. Wright knew or should have known of the alleged negligent acts and if you so find, Dr. Wright is vicariously liable for the alleged negligent acts. And if you do not so find, then Dr. Wright is not liable. ¶ 24. In applying Mississippi law, the Fifth Circuit stated that [t]he law imposes liability on a physician for the negligence of a nurse only if the nurse committed the negligent acts or omissions pursuant to the direction and control of the physician. Hunnicutt v. Wright, 986 F.2d 119, 124 (5th Cir.1993). The plaintiffs assert that the DW-13A inserts a knowledge requirement, which is in conflict with P-16 and further that knowledge is not a prerequisite to a finding of vicarious liability. ¶ 25. We find that these instructions are not hopelessly in conflict. Instruction P-16 instructs the jury that Dr. Wright may be responsible for the negligence of nurses or technicians who were working under his direction and control or who he had a right to control. Instruction DW-13A instructs that Dr. Wright may be responsible for such negligence if he knew or should have known of such acts. This Court does not approve this instruction, and the bar is cautioned against using such an instruction. However, these instructions read together are not in actual conflict under the facts of this case, and we find no error in giving this instruction. If Dr. Wright had directed the acts or had a right to do so, then it follows that he knew or should have known about them. ¶ 26. Dr. Wright testified repeatedly that he was unaware that the blanket was on the table. Further, operating room technicians and nurses testified that the heating blanket stayed on the table in that particular operating room and that it was routinely used by the nurses without direction by the physician. As the Fifth Circuit has stated, [t]he routine acts of treatment which an attending physician may reasonably assume may be performed in his absence by nurses of a modern hospital as part of their usual and customary duties, and execution of which does not require specialized medical knowledge, are merely administrative acts for which negligence in their performance is imputable to the hospital. Hunnicutt, 986 F.2d at 123 (citing Clark v. Luther McGill, Inc., 240 Miss. 509, 127 So.2d 858, 861 (1961)). Thus, there must be some connection be it actual or imputed knowledge of the negligent act by the physician. We find this allegation of error to be without merit.