To establish a claim of ostensible agency, a plaintiff must show that the plaintiff reasonably believed in the putative agent’s authority generated by some act or omission of the putative principal, and that the plaintiff’s own negligence did not contribute to any misapprehension.
In the case the State of Michigan Court of Appeals (“Michigan Appellate Court”) decided in an unpublished opinion dated June 29, 2023, the Michigan Appellate Court stated: “In this case, the record reflects that Jacqueline did not look to the hospital for medical treatment, but only as a location where her physician would treat her. She asked to be transferred from Henry Ford Macomb specifically to treat with her cardiologist, Dr. Kazziha, with whom she had a preexisting patient-physician relationship, who involved Dr. Koshy, the on-call cardiologist from Dr. Kazziha’s private practice, in Jacqueline’s treatment at the Hospital. Further, the Hospital’s consent form, which Jacqueline signed before receiving any medical treatment, specifically notified her that “most physicians” in the Hospital worked independently and billed separately for their services. Further, Jacqueline did not present to the Hospital’s emergency room seeking treatment on an emergency basis. She had already treated at Henry Ford Macomb and was no longer experiencing an emergency requiring emergent care. Unlike in Grewe, the Hospital did not offer any physicians to Jacqueline, because she transferred to the Hospital specifically seeking treatment from her own cardiologist, Dr. Kazziha. Therefore, she did not “look to” the Hospital for treatment. Moreover, nothing implied that Drs. Hidalgo or Koshy were agents of the Hospital, and any conclusion to the contrary would not have been reasonable because the Hospital’s consent form informed her that physicians in the Hospital worked and billed independently. Further, no evidence in the record indicates that the Hospital ever made any representations to Jacqueline or her family that Drs. Hidalgo or Koshy were its agents. This includes whether Jacqueline ever actually noticed Dr. Koshy’s lab coat badge, let alone what information she might have gleaned from it.”
“Regarding the Hospital’s website and Dr. Hidalgo’s presentations elsewhere in the community, no evidence established that Jacqueline ever saw that website, including information regarding the Hospital’s cardiac care or stroke center, at any time leading up to her transfer from Henry Ford Macomb, or that Jacqueline saw any of Dr. Hidalgo’s presentations regarding his administrative role with the Hospital or the stroke center.”
“For these reasons, we conclude that the totality of the evidence presented no genuine issue of material fact regarding whether Drs. Hidalgo and Koshy were ostensible agents of the Hospital. Nothing in the record indicated that Jacqueline had a reasonable belief that Drs. Hidalgo or Koshy practiced medicine under the Hospital’s control, or that any act or omission of the Hospital generated a reasonable belief of ostensible agency permitting the imputation of liability upon the Hospital. Accordingly, the trial court correctly granted the Hospital summary disposition regarding the vicarious liability claims relating to the actions of Drs. Hidalgo and Koshy.”
The Michigan Appellate Court stated in a footnote, however: “The rule in Michigan remains that, when a patient presents at the emergency room for treatment, and there receives it, the patient’s belief that the treating physician is the hospital’s agent is reasonable unless this belief is dispelled in some manner by the hospital or the treating physician.”
Source Estate of Jacqueline M. Grzywacz v. Hidalfo, M.D., Nos. 360424 and 361005.
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