Feingersh

Plaintiff in a medical malpractice action appeals from orders of dismissal following the granting of defendants’ motions to dismiss for want of prosecution pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 583, subdivision (a).

The action was commenced on January 29, 1971, with the filing of a complaint for personal injuries alleging that plaintiff had contracted serum hepatitis from blood transfusions administered during hospitalization in February 1970. Named as defendants were Dr. Melvin Anchell, Dr. Michael Fortier and the Lutheran Hospital Society of Southern California, doing business as the Santa Monica Hospital, (the Hospital) and a number of Does.

In order to more easily portray the picture of what occurred in this case we segregate the defendants into two groups; (1) those named in the original complaint, i.e., Fortier, Anchell and the Hospital, and (2) those later substituted for the Does, i.e., defendants Doctors Blood Bank (Blood Bank) Community Blood & Plasma Services, Inc. (Community) and Arnold W. Lane.

The named defendants Fortier, Anchell and Hospital were first served in August of 1973, two years and seven months after the filing of the complaint. These…