Court Opinion

ID: 9706824
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:52:21.642289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:41:35.524798
License: Public Domain

CASTILLE, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority here holds that a complaint based upon a breach of bailment agreement is insufficient to state a cause of action against a veterinarian who performs surgical procedures on an animal where the animal suffers an injury or expires as a result of these procedures. Instead, the majority creates a new cause of action, veterinary medical malpractice, and holds that in such situations as here this new cause of action extends to veterinarians who perform surgical or medical procedures on an animal in a negligent manner. Because I believe that bailment theories are adequate to address such situations and that professional medical malpractice concepts should not be extended by this Court to the field of veterinary medicine, I must respectfully dissent.
As noted by the majority, a “bailment” is a delivery of personalty for the accomplishment of some purpose upon a contract, express or implied, that after the purpose has been *227fulfilled, the personalty shall be redelivered to the person who delivered it in the same or an agreed to altered form. Smalich v. Westfall, 440 Pa. 409, 413, 269 A.2d 476, 480 (1970). Typical bailment agreements involve items of personal property such as automobiles. See Taylor v. Philadelphia Parking Authority, 398 Pa. 9, 156 A.2d 525 (1959). The present case concerns delivery of a pet dog to a veterinarian for surgical procedures. Under Pennsylvania law, dogs are recognized as personal property. See 3 P.S. § 459.601(a), the Dog Law. Case law within this jurisdiction demonstrates that animals may be the subject of bailments. See Conn v. Hunsberger, 224 Pa. 154, 73 A. 324 (1909) (livery-stable keeper who must exercise reasonable care in supplying a horse to a customer has bailor-bailee relationship with the customer); Middleton v. Stone, 111 Pa. 589, 4 A. 523 (1886) (delivery of two colts under a contract that they should be safely kept and sold at a certain price by a certain date or else be returned to the bailor resulted in a bailment). Thus, since dogs by statute are personal property in the eyes of the law, they are capable of being the subject of a bailment agreement.
Since dogs are capable of being the subject of a bailment agreement, the bailor (dog owner) bears the ultimate burden of proof in a bailment cause of action. Toole v. Miller, 375 Pa. 509, 512, 99 A.2d 897, 898 (1953). As stated in Schell v. Miller N. Broad Storage Co., 142 Pa.Super. 293, 16 A.2d 680 (1940):
[Wjhen the bailor has proved a bailment, a demand and failure to deliver, it then becomes incumbent upon the bailee to go forward with proofs not necessarily showing that he used proper care in handling the bailment but merely showing by clear and satisfactory proof that the goods were lost, and the manner that they were lost. When the bailee has furnished such proof satisfactory to the court and jury and if such proofs do not disclose lack of due care on his part, then the bailor, if he should recover, must prove negligence on the part of the bailee and the bailee’s negligence becomes a vital issue.
Id. at 301, 16 A.2d at 683-84. I believe that this standard of proof imposes a reasonable burden on veterinarians in sitúa*228tions involving medical or surgical procedures on animals since a veterinarian will still have to explain the course of treatment for the animal in question and adequately explain why the animal was not returned as per the bailment agreement. Therefore, since an animal is subject to bailment agreements and no undue burden is placed on veterinarians by the bailment cause of action, I believe that bailment theories are adequate to address situations where veterinarians perform medical or surgical procedure on an animal and the animal is not returned in the same condition as when it was delivered.
Like the majority, I recognize that veterinarians are somewhat similar to physicians and surgeons in that they are medically educated individuals who provide a great service to society and that their practice is extensively regulated by the Commonwealth. I, however, do not believe that it follows from these similarities that medical malpractice principles normally applied only to physicians and surgeons who operate on human beings should be extended to veterinarians. Such an expansion is unwarranted because the subject matter of the treatment (humans, as opposed the animals) is vastly different. As the Superior Court in this case aptly noted:
[N]or do we agree with the trial court that an animal and a veterinarian enjoy the same doctor/patient relationship as do a human being and a physician. A human patient cannot leave his or her liver or heart for treatment and make a subsequent demand for its return.
Price v. Brown, 438 Pa.Super. 68, 77, 651 A.2d 548, 552 (1994).
I also believe that medical malpractice principles should not be extended to veterinarians because, unlike medical malpractice actions in physician and surgeon cases, the victim of veterinary malpractice is incapable of bringing a cause of action against the veterinarian. As stated above, dogs are recognized as personal property in Pennsylvania. As personal property, a dog or any other animal, unlike a human being, cannot bring a cause of action against the veterinarian who treated it. Rather, the animal’s owner must institute the suit and the owner of the animal is not legally the direct victim of the malpractice.
*229Moreover, I find it improper for the majority here to create a veterinary medical malpractice cause of action because if such causes of action are to be extended to the owners of animals, be they pets or otherwise, I believe such a mandate should come from the General Assembly and not this Court.
Thus, I believe existing bailment theories provide an adequate and fair remedy to owners who unfortunately lose the faithful companionship of their pet animals or the use and benefit of their working animals from injuries or death suffered as a result of medical or surgical procedures performed by veterinarians. Accordingly, I cannot join the majority in extending professional medical negligence concepts, which have customarily been applied to physicians and surgeons, to veterinarians.
For the reasons set forth above, I would allow appellee to proceed against appellant at this juncture for the loss of her dog under a bailment theory. Therefore, I must respectfully dissent.