Court Opinion

ID: 9752501
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:10:56.285788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:45:45.290231
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Bell :
On April 8, 1958, Dr. Berberian was deprived of staff and hospital privileges by the Board of Directors *267of the Lancaster Osteopathic Hospital Association without giving him a hearing. The Board took this action after carefully considering a report from Dr. Wolf, Medical Director of the Lancaster Osteopathic Hospital, which stated — in great detail — that Dr. Berberian for a number of years had often been guilty of “grossly unprofessional conduct and even of criminal misconduct of a serious nature involving moral turpitude.”
It is the general rule that a Board of Directors of a private hospital may remove a physician from its staff in its discretion and without a hearing, unless the constitution or by-laws provide for a hearing. While the privilege of being a member of the staff of a particular hospital or having hospital privileges is obviously very valuable, a doctor has no vested right therein or thereto. There are many doctors in the Lancaster area and in every large metropolitan area who do not belong to the staff of a particular private hospital and never acquire staff or hospital privileges therein.
The “By Laws of the Lancaster Osteopathic Hospital Association Inc.” provide in Art. 2, section 10, “The directors may deprive any member of the staff, any physician or any surgeon from the privileges of the hospital.” The Board of Directors by resolution stated that it deprived Dr. Berberian of all staff privileges of the hospital and use of its facilities because the members of the Board unanimously concluded that “the conduct of Dr. Berberian has seriously interfered with the efficient and sound operation and management of the hospital.” Private hospitals are managed by a Board of Directors composed of public spirited, able citizens who unselfishly give their time, ability and services in the public welfare without salary or recompense. While we believe it would have been fairer and wiser for the Board to have given Dr. Berberian a hearing, even though he did not have any vested or lawful *268right thereto, it is clear from the record that the Board and the lower Court had reasonable and ample grounds for their respective action.
In Lindenfelser v. Lindenfelser, 385 Pa. 342, 123 A. 2d 626, the Court said: “Our uniform rule is that, on an appeal from a decree which refuses, grants or continues a preliminary injunction, we will look only to see if there were any apparently reasonable grounds for the action of the court below, and we will not further consider the merits of the case or pass upon the reasons for or against such action, unless it is plain that no such grounds existed or that the rules of law relied on are palpably wrong or clearly inapplicable: Commonwealth v. Katz, 281 Pa. 287, 288, 126 A. 765; Lesher v. Thomas S. Cassner Co., 285 Pa. 43, 44, 131 A. 657; Murray v. Hill, 359 Pa. 540, 541, 59 A. 2d 877; Cohen et al. v. A. M. Byers Company et al., 363 Pa. 618, 619, 70 A. 2d 837.” See to the same effect McDonald v. Noga, 393 Pa. 309, 141 A. 2d 842.
The Doctors who were members of the general staff adopted a set of by-laws to govern themselves which were separate and very different from the Directors’ by-laws and in many respects inconsistent therewith. The Board of Directors approved the by-laws which the General Staff adopted to govern themselves. This approval does not amount, as appellant contends, to an adoption of the staff by-laws by the Board of Directors, as the by-laws themselves further demonstrate.*
These staff by-laws furnish another complete answer to appellant’s argument. The By-laws of the “Lancaster Osteopathic Hospital General Staff,” upon which *269appellant relies, provide as follows: “Article I, Section E: 1. The Executive Committee reserves the right at any time, bnt only after adequate hearing and thorough investigation, to recommend to the Board of Directors the suspension of any officer or member of the General Staff or to deprive any physician or surgeon the privilege of hospital use whenever in its judgment the good of the hospital, the patient, or community shall demand.
“2. Any individual so suspended may have recourse to appeal, with legal counsel, before a joint meeting of the Executive Committee of the General Staff and the Board of Directors.” This by-law merely gives, as it clearly states, the Executive Committee of the General Staff* a discretionary power, if it desires to exercise it, to recommend to the Board of Directors after hearing or investigation, the denial of hospital privileges to any physician or surgeon. It is clear that this by-law of the General Staff has no application to this case, since the Executive Committee never exercised their discretionary power or recommended to the Board of Directors the deprivation of Berberian’s hospital privileges.
Since the Court below had reasonable grounds to refuse a preliminary injunction, I would affirm the decree.

 With respect to “intention”, if the Board of Directors had intended to adopt these staff by-laws as their own, is it conceivable that these public spirited, un-salariod men would have unanimously deprived Dr. Berberian of all staff and hospital privileges without a hearing?

 Article III, Section D. 1. The Executive Committee shall be composed of the President, President-elect, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer of the General Staff, the chairman of each of the Clinical Departments and two active staff members ....