Hospital seeks exit from Peter Fonda widow’s negligence suit

Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica is joining Peter Fonda’s former primary care doctor in seeking to be dismissed as a defendant in a suit filed by the late “Easy Rider” star’s widow by, maintaining that the facility is not liable for the acts of the physicians involved and that its nursing staff met acceptable medical care standards.

“The complaint does not contain any allegations of direct liability against PSJH or any basis for liability based on the care and treatment provided by the employee nursing staff,” the hospital attorneys state in court papers filed Wednesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Serena R. Murillo.

Two of the five physicians sued along with the hospital for negligence by the actor’s widow, Margaret Fonda, in Los Angeles Superior Court in August 2020 are Dr. Alison C. Garb, who had been the actor’s primary care doctor since 2008, and Dr. Wenchao Wu. The suit alleges that after Fonda underwent a CT scan for an aspirated object, the test revealed a spiculated nodule in the left lung which was a primary source of lung cancer that was not followed up on by Garb and the other doctors and proved fatal to the actor, who was 79 years old when he died in August 2019.

Garb’s attorneys previously filed court papers seeking dismissal of the part of the case against their client, offering among other things the sworn declaration of Dr. Robert Norman, who has been board-certified in family practice since 1983 and says he has reviewed all relevant medical and legal documents in the case.

“Based on my review of the medical records, deposition transcripts, discovery responses, as well as my education, training, and experience, it is my opinion that Dr. Garb’s care and treatment Peter Fonda was within the standard of care” Norman said.

The actions of Garb and Wu, a pulmonologist who treated Fonda at Providence St. John’s, are referred to often in the hospital’s dismissal motion, which maintains that Wu was an independent contractor and not a facility employee.

“Moreover, Dr. Garb was Mr. Fonda’s personal primary care physician who had initially referred Mr. Fonda to be seen by Dr. Wu at PSJH,” the hospital lawyers stated in their court papers. “The fact that Mr. Fonda chose Dr. Garb as his primary care physician is dispositive on the issue of ostensible agency.”

Ostensible agency refers to when an employer does something to suggest that the independent contractor actually works for him or her, or fails to correct this assumption, and allows the employer to be held liable for the independent contractor’s actions. The hospital’s attorneys maintain there is no “ostensible agency” in this case because Fonda was alert when he signed a document upon admission that he understood the doctors who would treat him were independent contractors.

“There is no evidence showing Mr. Fonda was unable to understand or act on the information before signing,” according to the court papers of the hospital lawyers, who further offer the sworn declaration of Dr. James Leo to address the level of care given Fonda by the Providence St. John nursing staff.

“Based on my review of the materials as well as my education, training and experience, it is my opinion that the nursing staff at Providence Saint John’s Health Center at all times met the standard of care in the community with regard to the care and treatment provided to Mr. Fonda,” according to Leo, who is certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine with a subspecialty certification in critical care medicine.

Hearings on the dismissal motions by Garb and the hospital are scheduled March 28 and Sept. 29, respectively.

From a family of Hollywood stars, Peter Fonda was an actor, director and screenwriter, best known for his role in 1969’s “Easy Rider.” He also was the only son of the late Academy Award-winning Henry Fonda and was the younger brother of actress Jane Fonda.

Fonda had two children who also are actors; a son, 56-year-old Justin Fonda, and a daughter, 58-year-old Bridget Fonda, both by Susan Brewer, his first of three wives. Fonda and Brewer married in 1961 and divorced in 1974.

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