Medical malpractice - apparent agency
The Illinois Appellate Court has reversed a trial court ruling in a medical malpractice case involving apparent agency. Even though the patient and his wife signed consent forms stating that the doctors were not employees of the hospital the court held that summary judgment was not properly granted on the issue of apparent agency.
The plaintiff also argued that the evidence established a genuine issue of material fact that the defendant physicians were the apparent agents of the hospital. She argued that the consent form which she and the decedent signed was ''extremely confusing'' and ambiguous because it did not state clearly that the doctors who would be caring for the decedent were not hospital employees or agents and it could have been reasonably interpreted to mean that his personal physicians were employed by Northwest but the other unidentified physicians were not.
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