Hospital Not Liable for Physician’s Lack of Adequate Insurance

A South Carolina hospital had no contractual or tort duty to ensure a doctor to whom it granted medical staff privileges had malpractice insurance adequate to cover claims against him, a state appeals court said.

Laurens County Health Care System and its successor, Greenville Health System, weren’t liable for judgments awarded to patients injured by physician Byron Brown that weren’t covered by his insurance, under either a breach of contract or corporate negligence theory, the South Carolina Court of Appeals said Jan. 8.

Chris McCord and Janice Sherfield suffered complications following surgeries performed by Brown. They obtained default judgments against ...