Alef

Plaintiff/appellant Joseph Alef, a minor, appeals judgments in favor of defendants/respondents Alta Bates Hospital (Alta Bates), Roger Hoag, M.D., and Robert Neff, M.D., in appellant’s medical malpractice action. At the close of appellant’s case-in-chief the trial court granted Alta Bates’s motion for nonsuit. Thereafter, by special verdict the jury found Hoag and Neff were not negligent. Appellant contends there was sufficient evidence to submit the case against Alta Bates to the jury, and assigns numerous evidentiary errors. We reverse the nonsuit and the judgment for Neff, and affirm the judgment for Hoag.

Facts

Drs. Neff and Hoag are obstetricians and gynecologists (OB/GYN). In September 1980 Neff confirmed that appellant’s mother, Lis, was pregnant. She had an essentially unremarkable pregnancy and was a candidate for Alta Bates’s alternative birth center.

At about 6:30 a.m. on April 7, 1981, Lis went into labor at home, notified Hoag, and left for Alta Bates at about 11:30 a.m. Upon admission she was in the active phase of the first stage of labor. The first stage of labor is divided into latent and active phases. The latent phase begins with the onset of…