Court Opinion

ID: 9659811
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:55:03.528921+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:11.726032
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze. Justice, dissenting. The majority is mistaken when, in its opinion, it states the appellants failed to deny appellees’ allegation that Dr. Eades was an agent or employee for Medi-Stat Medical Clinic, Inc. In fact, appellants worded their answer to appellees’ complaint very carefully to say only that “Dr. Michael Eades was a licensed practicing physician working at Medi-Stat.” Such language obviously is broad enough to include Dr. Eades as working in the capacity of an independent contractor. In paragraph 11 of their answer, they further denied “all remaining allegations” — a denial which clearly would have included the appellees’ claims that Dri Eades was an agent or employee of the clinic. In fact, to conclude otherwise would mean that a general denial is meaningless, and unless a defendant specifically denied each allegation of a complaint, he or she will be charged with having admitted them. In addition to the parties’ pleadings, one need only review the pretrial discovery and the evidence and arguments at trial to know that the agency and employment issues were contested throughout this litigation. I further should note that I parted from the majority’s earlier opinion when it held Medi-State vicariously liable for Dr. Eades’s negligence. The majority listed some six factors to support its view on this issue and now attempts to shore up its position by mentioning the parties’ pleadings as discussed above. In addition to disagreeing with its view of the pleadings, I take slight exception to how two of the six factors were described in the majority’s earlier opinion. For example, the majority opinion concluded the clinic chose the physician who treated Mr. Cowan when, in fact, no evidence was offered by anyone as to how physicians were assigned to patients. The majority opinion also mentioned that none of the medical records contained a disclaimer or other indication that Medi-Stat is not the medical care provider or that its physicians were not employees of Medi-Stat. While it is clear that agency may not be proved by declarations, actions or inactions of a purported agent, here the lack of a disclaimer or the medical chart was never mentioned at trial; nor was there a law that required such a disclosure. In sum, I wish to reiterate my earlier view that the appellees clearly failed to show a employee/employer relationship between Dr. Eades and Medi-Stat and to the extent vicarious liability was not shown, I believe the judgment obtained against Medi-Stat should be set aside.