ROBIN LILLY V MIDMICHIGAN REGIONAL MEDICAL
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
ROBIN LILLY, Personal Representative of the Estate
of JONATHON ROY, Deceased,
UNPUBLISHED
May 27, 1997
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v
MIDMICHIGAN REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER,
No. 191756
Midland Circuit Court
LC No. 93-2528 NH
Defendant-Appellee.
Before: Saad, P.J., and Hood and McDonald, JJ.
MEMORANDUM.
Plaintiff appeals by right a directed verdict entered in favor of defendant hospital at the close of
plaintiff ’s proofs in this medical malpractice action. This case is being decided without oral argument
pursuant to MCR 7.214(E).
The sole issue presented is whether plaintiff produced sufficient evidence to create a triable issue
of fact regarding defendant’s liability on an ostensible agency theory pursuant to Grewe v Mt Clemens
General Hospital, 404 Mich 240, 250-251; 273 NW2d 429 (1978). The contention by defendant,
accepted by the trial court, that because Dr. Khabir at the Central Michigan Community Hospital
emergency room in Mt. Pleasant, without ever personally seeing or evaluating plaintiff ’s decedent’s
condition, directed the paramedics to transfer decedent to defendant hospital, where more appropriate
facilities for the types of injuries described by the paramedics using telecommunications could be
obtained, the staff physicians who treated decedent at defendant hospital should be regarded as having
been chosen by Dr. Khabir, with whom decedent thus had some form of prior relationship. We
disagree. Plaintiff had no actual physician-patient relationship with Dr. Khabir, and did not rely on him
for selection of other specialists to treat his injuries. See Johnson v University of Chicago Hospital,
982 F2d 230, 233 (CA 7, 1992); Miller v Medical Center of Southwest Louisiana, 22 F3d 626,
630 (CA 5, 1994) (both addressing the issue under the anti-dumping statute, 42 USC §1395dd).
The critical factor in a Grewe analysis is whether the plaintiff reasonably looked to the hospital
for treatment or merely viewed it as a situs for treatment by his personal physician. Strach v St Johns
-1
Hospital, 160 Mich App 251, 266; 408 NW2d 441 (1987). Here, where plaintiff ’s decedent had no
prior relationship with any of the physicians or nurses involved, and left it to defendant hospital to assign
an emergency physician or surgeon from its staff for treatment of his vehicular injuries, at least a triable
issue of fact exists on this record to establish defendant’s liability on an ostensible agency theory.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We do not retain
jurisdiction.
/s/ Henry William Saad
/s/ Harold Hood
/s/ Gary R. McDonald
-2
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.