Suit Against Abington Hosp. Was Properly Moved: PA Superior Court

ABINGTON, PA — A Pennsylvania appellate court panel recently determined that a hospital negligence case that was originally filed in Philadelphia was properly transferred to Montgomery County because the alleged improper medical care had occurred in that county and not in the city.

The three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled on July 30 that plaintiff Zelma Showell’s case against Abington Memorial Hospital should be under the jurisdiction of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas and not a trial court in Philadelphia.

In June 2020, a Philadelphia judge transferred Showell’s civil suit against the hospital to Montgomery County after sustaining venue objections by the hospital who had argued that the complaint was improperly filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

Showell filed suit against Abington Memorial Hospital in February 2020 alleging that the defendants provided negligent medical care to her for high blood pressure and strokes between July 2018 and August 2018, according to background information on the case contained within the July 30 appellate ruling.

The plaintiff had been admitted to the hospital in July 2020 with symptoms of headache, weakness, slurred speech, unsteady gait and facial droop, as well as concerning blood pressure levels. While being treated by hospital staff, an acute stroke was detected, according to the appeals decision.

Showell was discharged after three days, and she argues that hospital staff failed to send her home with proper medications to treat her high blood pressure.

Following her discharge, Showell received home healthcare visits from Abington nurses on two separate occasions – July 23, 2018 and July 25, 2018, according to the ruling. She was readmitted to Abington on July 25. Showell says she suffered another stroke on July 28, after which she remained at the hospital for a second stay until Aug. 7, 2018, when she was sent to a rehabilitation facility.

In March 2020, the hospital filed preliminary objections to Showell’s complaint asserting improper venue, and seeking to transfer the civil case to the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

On July 30, the appeals judges agreed with the defense, writing that civil procedural rules and case law determined that venue was proper in the county where the hospital is located.

“Plaintiff’s complaint establishes that the diagnoses and treatment of her strokes and the failure to provide medications or prescriptions on discharge all occurred at Abington Memorial Hospital in Montgomery County,” the appeals judges wrote. “The complaint also alleges that the second stroke occurred while Plaintiff was hospitalized in Montgomery County following several days of hospitalization during which her blood pressure readings were higher than they had been before her admission.”

The court disagreed with Showell’s argument that because she received two home healthcare visits at her Philadelphia home, that the case was properly filed in the city’s court system. The appeals panel disagreed.

“While the complaint pleads that Plaintiff received health care from one of Defendant’s in Philadelphia in these home visits, that is not sufficient to establish venue in Philadelphia County,” the Superior Court panel wrote. “Rather, venue is proper only where the negligent medical care at issue occurred.”

The judges wrote that the lawsuit’s allegations concerning the home visits “negate any claim that Plaintiff’s cause of action against any of Defendants arose from negligence in medical care provided in Philadelphia.

“Although the complaint makes conclusory averments that Defendants were negligent on the dates of the home health visits in failing to ensure that Plaintiff had and was taking her blood pressure medications … it does not allege that the nurses who provided the care in Philadelphia at those visits acted negligently,” the panel wrote.

In the end, the appeals panel affirmed the Philadelphia trial court’s decision to move the case to Montgomery County.