Cowan v. Doering

The opinion of the Court was delivered by HANDLER, J.

What are we to make of Marilyn Cowan’s defenestration? When Ms. Cowan jumped from a second-story hospital room, she was a patient being treated for an overdose of sleeping pills, taken in an earlier suicide attempt that same morning. Her jump from the window left her with serious injuries.

Ms. Cowan came to believe that others, not she, were responsible for her behavior and resultant injuries. She sued her treating physician, Dr. Alexandre Ackad, registered nurses Kathleen Barlics and Carole Eltridge, and the Valley Hospital, alleging that…