Hooks

Plaintiff and appellant William Hooks III (Hooks) appeals from a summary judgment granted to defendant and respondent Southern California Permanente Medical Group (Hospital).

Factual Background

The factual background set forth herein for purposes of the comprehensibility of this opinion is gleaned from pleadings and papers in this case consisting of the complaint, the deposition of Norma Armistead, Hooks’ answers to interrogatories, the motion for summary judgment and its supporting and opposing papers.

Norma Armistead (Armistead) began working as an obstetric nurse in 1965. She worked at Martin Luther King Hospital prior to her employment by Kaiser Foundation Hospital.

Some time before Armistead began working at the Hospital in approximately 1974, she met Hooks’ mother, Kathryn Viramontes (Viramontes), at the Raco Bar in Hollywood. They formed a social friendship.

In the fall of 1974, while Armistead was employed by and on duty at the Hospital, she delivered Mary Childs of a baby girl. During the delivery, she was unassisted by any physician, contrary to normal practice. Armistead substituted a dead fetus for the Childs baby and reported a stillbirth. Until…