Eastern District Federal Court Addresses Corporate Negligence Claims In Med Mal Case

In the case of McClure v. Parvis, No. 17-3049 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 6, 2018 Savage, J.), the court denied a Motion to Dismiss filed by a Defendant in a medical malpractice claim raising issues of corporate negligence.

The court noted that a claim for corporate negligence arises from the policies, acts, or omissions of the entity itself, and not from specific acts of the individual employees of the entity.  

Notably, while this court indicated that corporate negligence theories are not limited to hospitals, it otherwise noted that the courts of Pennsylvania have not extended such theories to apply to physician offices as such offices are not comprehensive health centers that are responsible for the total health of its patients.  

The court also noted that, to decide whether a particular health care entities owes the Plaintiff a non-delegable duty requires an examination of the extent of that entity’s oversight and control of the medical professionals directly providing the care to the Plaintiff.   As this determination is fact-based, the court ruled that this analysis could not be completed at the Motion to Dismiss stage. 

Accordingly, the court denied the Motion to Dismiss filed in this matter and allowed the case to proceed into discovery.  

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.  The Court's companion Order can be viewed HERE.

I send thanks to Attorney James M. Beck of the Philadelphia office of the law firm of Reed Smith for bringing this case to my attention.