Is Volunteer Medical School Instructor Immune from Personal Liability for Negligence as 'State Officer?'

When Injury to Private Patient Occurs During Surgery Observed By Student

Larry Engel, Jr. v. University of Toledo College of Medicine, Case no. 2009-1735

10th District Court of Appeals (Franklin County)

ISSUE: The Ohio Court of Claims Act, Section 9.86 of the Revised Code, generally immunizes "officers and employees" of the state from personal liability for injuries caused by the negligent performance of their job duties. Rather than seeking recovery from the individual worker who allegedly caused injury, the law authorizes persons harmed by state employees' acts or omissions to recover damages by filing suit against the state in the Court of Claims. In this case, the Supreme Court is asked to decide whether R.C. 9.86 confers personal immunity on a private-practice physician who serves as a volunteer faculty member of a public medical school for injuries the physician caused to one of his own private patients during an operation performed in a non-university hospital while he was being observed by a university medical student.

BACKGROUND: Patient Larry Engel Jr. suffered injuries as a result of alleged malpractice by Dr. Marek Skoskiewicz during the performance of two vasectomy surgeries on Engel at the Henry County Hospital in Napoleon. Engel was a patient of Dr. Skoskiewicz' private medical practice, and the hospital is a private, non-profit facility that is not affiliated with the University of Toledo or any other state agency. The surgeries were observed by a third-year medical student at the University of Toledo College of Medicine (UTCM) who was "shadowing" Dr. Skoskiewicz at the time as part of a program in which private physicians across the state serve as volunteer "clinical faculty members" of the state's six medical schools by allowing medical students to observe the day-to-day operation of their private medical practices.