Reida v. Cape Cod Hospital

The plaintiff sued Cape Cod Hospital and its emergency room physician for their role in causing her involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility. Her complaint is that the physician failed to examine her, as G. L. c. 123, § 12(o), requires, before he authorized her restraint and applied for her temporary hospitalization at the facility. Compare Leininger v. Franklin Med. Center, 404 Mass. 245, 248 (1989). Prior to trial, the judge allowed Cape Cod Hospital’s motion for summary judgment. On the single count against the physician that went to the jury, the judge instructed, in part, that §…