## Facts

- Edward Abernathy was a paying patient at St. Mary’s Hospital, operated by Sisters of St. Mary’s, a benevolent religious nonprofit corporation.
- Abernathy alleged that, while weakened, a hospital employee assisted him from his bed to the bathroom and then left him unattended.
- He fell and suffered multiple injuries, including a fracture of his right leg.
- He alleged the hospital was negligent by failing to provide handrails for toilet use and failing to provide an attendant to remain with and assist him.
- The hospital asserted it was a charitable institution and therefore immune from tort liability for negligence of its agents and employees.

## Issues

1. Whether Missouri should retain the common-law doctrine that a nongovernmental charitable institution is immune from tort liability for negligence of its agents and employees.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Missouri (en banc) reversed the summary judgment for the hospital and remanded.
- The court abolished charitable immunity for nongovernmental charitable institutions in Missouri.
- The court held such institutions are liable for their own negligence and for negligence of their agents and employees acting within the scope of employment.
- The new rule applied to this case and a companion case, and prospectively to causes of action arising after the opinion’s filing date.

## Legal Principles

- A nongovernmental charitable institution is not immune from tort liability and may be sued and held liable for negligence, including negligence of employees acting within the scope of employment.
- Traditional rationales for charitable immunity—implied waiver by beneficiaries and the trust fund theory—do not justify immunity from liability in tort.
- Courts may modify or abrogate judge-made common-law immunities when their justifications no longer fit modern conditions.
- Prospective application may be used to limit disruption where institutions reasonably relied on an existing immunity rule.

## Conclusion

Missouri rejected charitable immunity for nongovernmental charities, holding them subject to ordinary negligence liability (including respondeat superior) and applying the change to the pending cases and future causes of action.


Abernathy v. Sisters of St. Mary’s, 446 S.W.2d 599 (Mo. 1969)