Opinion ID: 2046507
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Indiana Jurisprudence

Text: In the hospital setting, Indiana courts have long followed the general rule that hospitals could not be held liable for the negligent actions of independent contractor physicians. In early cases, courts held that, because hospitals are corporations and corporations could not legally practice medicine, the doctrine of respondeat superior could not be applied as between hospitals and physicians, even if those physicians were employees of the hospital rather than independent contractors. See Iterman v. Baker, 214 Ind. 308, 316-18, 15 N.E.2d 365, 369-70 (1938); Huber v. Protestant Deaconess Hosp. Ass'n, 127 Ind.App. 565, 577, 133 N.E.2d 864, 869 (1956). Courts felt that respondeat superior simply did not apply because the hospitals could not legally assert any control over the physicians. Iterman, 15 N.E.2d at 369-70. [7] As the Court of Appeals correctly observed, however, the holding of Iterman has eroded over time, and courts no longer allow hospitals to use their inability to practice medicine as a shield to protect themselves from liability. 661 N.E.2d at 14; see also Sloan v. Metropolitan Health Council, 516 N.E.2d 1104, 1106-09 (Ind.Ct.App.1987) (citing IND.CODE § 23-1.5-2-6(c) (1998)); Estate of Mathes v. Ireland, 419 N.E.2d 782, 785-86 (Ind.Ct.App.1981). Moreover, although Indiana law may support a claim of vicarious liability through apparent or ostensible agency in some instances, [8] courts in this jurisdiction rarely have considered this doctrine in a hospital setting and have never applied it to hold a hospital liable for the acts of an independent contractor physician. [9] Rather, Indiana courts have continued to limit hospital liability under the doctrine of respondeat superior and have continued to focus on the question of whether the alleged acts of negligence were committed by an employee of the hospital or by an independent contractor. See Weaver v. Robinson, 627 N.E.2d 442, 447-48 (Ind.Ct.App.1993), disapproved of on other grounds, Kennedy v. Murphy, 659 N.E.2d 506 (Ind.1995); Castillo v. Ruggiero, 562 N.E.2d 446, 456 (Ind.Ct.App.1990). If the alleged negligence was committed by an independent contractor physician, the courts generally have held that the hospital cannot be held liable for those actions. See, e.g., Weaver, 627 N.E.2d at 447-48.