Court Case 11-4: Negligence Between Hospital And Doctor Thota

Case 11-4 is about the conflict between the widow of the patient and the doctor. The plaintiff brought a lawsuit against the hospital and doctor Thota, arguing that it is defendants’ fault that led her husband to death. In contradiction, Thota claimed that due to the negligence and the unavoidable result that Ronnie would die, he would not be responsible in this case. In this case, the defendant, Thota, gave the explanation that it was related to contributory negligence, as he didn’t obtain the detailed information of medical history from Ronnie, and he didn’t consider Ronnie’s other medical problems that might interfere Thota’s procedure. From Thota’s perspective, Ronnie's injuries were partially the result of Ronnie's own negligence and
Based on the verdict given by the trial court and the debate on the Proximate Cause (by the jury), the judge considered that the trial court's inclusion of the question on Ronnie's contributory negligence and the new and independent cause instruction in the jury charge was an abuse of discretion and constituted harmful error. The judge then considered whether the disputed inferential rebuttal instructions on new and independent cause and unavoidable accident were proper. With lots of evidence, the court held that the charge commingled Dr. Thota's improper theory of liability (the extensive bleeding) with Young's proper theory of liability (the torn artery) and, consequently, prevented the appellate court “from being able to determine whether the jury's finding of no liability as to Dr. Thota was a finding of no negligence on his part, an erroneous finding of contributory negligence on Ronnie's part, or an erroneous finding of new and independent