Rainer

Plaintiff appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of Dr. Morton I. Grossman, one of several doctors joined as defendants in a complaint alleging medical malpractice in connection with a surgical operation performed on plaintiff on June 20, 1960, and seven subsequent operations from February 28, 1962, and including September 4, 1962.

. Prior to instituting this action, plaintiff on February 27, 1963, commenced a malpractice action in the Superior Court of Ventura County (hereafter Ventura case) against the Buena Memorial Hospital where the surgery was performed and a number of doctors, most of whom are also named as defendants in this action. Dr. Grossman, however, was not a defendant in that action.

With one relatively minor exception, a jury in that case found in favor of all defendants on each of the various theories of recovery. Judgment was entered April 5, 1968, and plaintiff appealed. (See Rainer v. Community Memorial Hosp., 18 Cal.App.3d 240 [ 95 Cal.Rptr. 901 ], filed June 21, 1971, for a description of the facts surrounding the surgery which was performed on plaintiff.)

In the Ventura case one of plaintiff’s theories of recovery was that Dr. David…