Court Rules Doctor Cannot Face Third Party Liability in Medical Malpractice Suit

By Brittany Golledge

Published on September 19, 2005

The doctor had been included as a third party defendant in two medical malpractice lawsuits filed on behalf of the two individuals killed in the accident. The suits alleged that the doctor was negligent in failing to diagnose and treat his patient for a seizure disorder. The plaintiffs also maintained that the doctor had a duty to inform the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that his patient, who had a history of seizures, was not competent to operate a motor vehicle.

The majority opinion, which reversed the trial court ruling that dismissed the doctor's preliminary objection to the lawsuit, was based on a prior decision, Witthoeft v. Kiskaddon, where the court found that a doctor was not liable for the actions of a vision-impaired patient who ran over and killed a bicyclist. The decision also followed a long line of precedent limiting the third party liability of physicians to instances where a transmissible disease is at issue.

The dissenting judge pointed out that in Witthoeft, the patient had no history of accidents caused by his condition, whereas in the case presently before the court, the defendant knew, or should have known that his patient had been involved in previous accidents where he had blacked out following a seizure.

Comment on this article →