Court Opinion

ID: 9715805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:14:54.754029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:38.301544
License: Public Domain

RUCKER, Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority concludes “hospitals may be held liable for- the negligence of their apparent agents, notwithstanding the fact that the agents are independent contractors.” Op. at 15. I cannot agree because the law in this state is clear, unequivocal, and of long duration that absent certain exceptions not relevant here, an employer may not be held liable for the negligent acts of his independent contractor employees. Daugherty v. Fuller Engineering Serv. Corp., 615 N.E.2d 476, 480 (Ind.Ct.App.1993), trans. denied; Smith v. P. & B. Corp., 179 Ind.App. 693, 386 N.E.2d 1232, 1235 (1979); Zimmerman v. Baur, 11 Ind.App. 607, 39 N.E. 299, 303 (1894). I recognize that the law is not a static phenomenon and in a proper case a court may depart from the doctrine of stare decisis in order to vindicate plain and obvious principles of law or to remedy continued injustice. However we have no such case before us.
There is no dispute that the negligence of an agent may be imputed to the principal. See e.g., Green v. Perry, 549 N.E.2d 385, 388 (Ind.Ct.App.1990), trans. denied; Jack Ward Chevrolet, Inc. v. Mikel, 525 N.E.2d 349, 350 (Ind.Ct.App.1988), trans. denied. And this is so whether the agent is actual or apparent. However, a party cannot be deemed an agent and an independent contractor in the same breath. The underlying rationales are different and they stand in opposition to one another. More specifically, the general rule that a principle is liable for the torts of his agents is not grounded on agency principles. Rather, tort liability is based on an employer-employee relationship. Dallas Moser Transporters, Inc., v. Ensign, 594 N.E.2d 454 (Ind.Ct.App.1992). This is as it should be. In our system of tort liability based upon fault, if a party is to be held liable for the acts of another, then the party should have the right or power to control the other’s conduct. Id. at 457 citing Bitzer v. Pradziad, 571 N.E.2d 593, 596 (Ind.Ct.App.1991), trans. denied. Such right exists where the parties’ relationship is that of a typical employer and employee. Therein lies the basis for the rule that an agent’s negligence may be imputed to the principal. On the other hand, the relationship between an employer and an independent contractor is quite different. “An independent contractor is one who, [ ] exercising an independent employment, contracts to do certain work according to his own methods and without being subject to the control of his employer except as to the product of his work.” Furr v. Review Bd. of Indiana Employment Sec. Div., 482 N.E.2d 790, 794 (Ind.Ct.App.1985). Because of this lack of control by the employer we have long held that the employer of an independent contractor is generally not liable for the torts of that contractor. See, e.g. Hale v. Peabody Coal Company, 168 Ind.App. 336, 343 N.E.2d 316 (1976).
In this jurisdiction the rule that a hospital is not liable for the negligent act of its physicians and surgeons was first announced in Iterman v. Baker, 214 Ind. 308, 15 N.E.2d 365 (1938). That case seemed to suggest that a hospital could not be held liable even if the allegedly negligent physicians or surgeons were employees of the hospital. This was so because under the statutes then in existence, “a corporation, or other unlicensed person, [could] not engage in the practice of medicine by employing one who is licensed to do the things which constitute practicing the profession.... Since the corporation could *18not legally practice medicine, the appellee was bound to know that whoever treated him was not acting for the corporation.” Iterman, 15 N.E.2d at 370.1 Because of the enactment of Ind.Code § 23-1.5, commonly referred to as the Professional Corporation Act of 1983 (Act), the underlying rationale of Herman has been eroded. The Act, which applies to health care providers, among others, provides in pertinent part “[a] corporation whose employees perform professional services within the scope of their employment or their apparent authority to act for the corporation is hable to the same extent as its employees.” I.C. § 23~1.5-2-6(c). In Sloan v. Metro Health Council, 516 N.E.2d 1104 (Ind.Ct.App.1987), we determined “the Act stands as a pronouncement of public policy concerning a corporation’s vicarious liability for the acts of its employee-physicians.” Id. at 1107; see also Tarr v. Jablonski, 569 N.E.2d 378 (Ind.Ct.App.1991), reh’g denied, trans. denied (determining the proposition under Herman that a corporation could not be held liable for the malpractice of a physician is no longer viable).
It is now clear that a hospital may be held liable for the acts of a physician performing services on the hospital’s premises. However, as we recently reaffirmed in Weaver v. Robinson, 627 N.E.2d 442 (Ind.Ct.App.1993), rejected on other grounds, Kennedy v. Murphy, 659 N.E.2d 506 (Ind.1995), that is so only where the physician is an employee of the hospital and the hospital is aware that the care the physician is providing has deviated from normal practice. Id. In this case there is no dispute that Doctor Luna was employed by Norton Hospital as an independent contractor. She could not therefore have also served as the hospital’s agent, apparent or otherwise, because she was not an employee over whom the hospital exercised control except “as to the product of [her] work.” Furr, 482 N.E.2d at 794. Under the settled law of this state Doctor Luna’s negligence as an independent contractor can not be imputed to Norton Hospital. I therefore dissent and would affirm the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in the hospital’s favor.

. Also, Iterman has been cited for the proposition that a hospital is generally not liable for the medical negligence of doctors on its staff because doctors are considered independent contractors as a matter of law. See Yaney by Yaney v. McCray Memorial Hosp., Ind.App., 496 N.E.2d 135, 137 (Ind.Ct.App.1986).