Opinion ID: 1800365
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiff's Requested Instruction Number 8.

Text: Schwartz argues that it was prejudicial in this case to fail to tell the jury that there was, as a matter of law, a duty on Dr. Christianson, the admitting physician, to follow the course of the treatment during Schwartz's stay in the hospital. He directs our attention to a hospital bylaw which states that a primary physician is responsible for a patient until discharge. Schwartz requested the following instruction: A surgeon has the right to cancel and thereby control the activities of an anesthesiologist treating his patient; he also has an individual, non-delegable duty to exercise his own judgment in the care of a patient of his who is being cared for by others and himself and to warn of disapproval of the actions of others if he should have learned of, and disapproved of, such actions. The trial court refused the instruction for the following reasons:  ... The first two lines are a statement of the captain of the ship doctrine under which a surgeon would have the right to control the activities of an anesthesiologist. This is contrary to the standard of medical care testified to by all of the expert witnesses, including those presented by Plaintiff, and overlooks the fact that the surgeon and anesthesiologist are both specialists with different responsibilities, each responsible for care of the patient within the realm of his own specialty. The standard of care and its violation must ordinarily be shown by expert testimony. Winkjer v. Herr, 277 N.W.2d 579. To instruct the jury that one should control the other would be contrary to the evidence and error. The rest of No. 8 was in effect given in the instruction entitled `Malpractice Duty of Physician.' The captain-of-the-ship doctrine is grounded on principles of agency. The essential question is whether one is subject to the control of another not only to the work to be done but also the manner of performing it.... [T]he master must have control not only over the agent but over the work and the performance thereof before liability can be extended to him. [Citations omitted.] Grubb v. Albert Einstein Medical Center, 255 Pa. Super. 381, 387 A.2d 480, 487 (1978). We agree with the trial court that the testimony at trial does not indicate that Dr. Christianson had a right to control Dr. Ghaly's performance. Nor is there evidence indicating that Dr. Ghaly was selected, hired, or paid by Christianson. See Adams v. Leidholdt, 38 Colo.App. 463, 563 P.2d 15, 19 (1977). The instruction given is, in pertinent part, as follows: Once a physician has undertaken to treat a patient, his employment and duty as a physician to the patient continues until ended by consent of the patient or the physician withdraws from the case after giving the patient notice and a reasonable time to employ another doctor or the condition of the patient is such that the physician's services are no longer reasonably required. . . . . . A physician is not liable for the negligent acts or omissions of another physician treating the same patient unless you find that he was, or ought reasonably to have been, aware of the acts constituting malpractice on the part of the other physician. The evidence shows that the hospital had certain by-laws in effect at the time of Jeffrey Schwartz's surgery on May 16, 1979. If you find that the defendants or any of them failed to comply with those bylaws, and the by-laws set a standard of medical care, and such violation was a proximate cause of the injury to plaintiff, you may consider such violation as some evidence of negligence by said defendant or defendants. We have consistently stated that jury instructions will be regarded as a whole when we consider their correctness. An erroneous or insufficient instruction will be considered cured if the instructions as a whole fairly advise the jury as to the law which pertains to the essential issues. Wasem v. Laskowski, 274 N.W.2d 219, 222-223 (N.D.1979). The instructions, as given, fairly advised the jury. Had they found Dr. Christianson negligent in the supervision of the care of Schwartz, they were entitled to impose liability on the basis of the court's instructions. We believe that the instructions on the whole properly informed the jury. There was no error at law and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a new trial on this ground.