Carpenter awarded Sh800,000 as court rules illegal for hospitals to detain patients

The High Court has ruled that hospitals cannot detain patients to force them to pay medical bills.

In his judgment against The Labib Hospital, Justice Lawrence Mugambi said that holding onto a person who has been treated and fully recovered is unreasonable, unfair, and a punishment.

He awarded Harman Kamau Kinoru, a carpenter, Sh800,000 for the anguish he suffered in 2021 at the hands of the city hospital.

The Judge was of the view that any detention without the blessings of the law is illegal.

According to him, seeking to force a person to pay debt by detaining them violates the right to liberty.

“I am of the view that granting declaratory relief is in order, but that alone is not sufficient to vindicate the petitioner for the distressful experience he underwent. Holding a person who has been treated and fully recovered in hospital for over two months to compel him to pay the hospital bill is punitive, unfair, unreasonable and thus unlawful.”

“Although the debt was legally incurred, the means adopted by the respondent to enforce the payment was callous and had no place in a civilized society. It runs afoul of our Bill of Rights,” said Justice Mugambi.

Kamau sued the hospital on December 1, 2021.

He narrated that he was admitted at Labib on August 24, 2021, and was treated for a month.

Doctors approved his discharge. However, the hospital demanded Sh3.09 million. The man said he managed to pay Sh764,200 but was not discharged.

He lamented that the more he was kept in the hospital, the more the bill accumulated.

“The detention by the respondent from September 24, 2021, amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment because the respondent was only selfishly interested in the payment of the hospital bill without being mindful of the social and psychological effects the unlawful detention had on the petitioner,” argued Kamau.

The court heard that the hospital had violated his rights for at least two months. He claimed that he suffered ridicule and embarrassment from this incident as family members and society knew that Labib was detaining him for his inability to pay the money.

He asserted that the amounts were exaggerated.

The carpenter argued that he was the sole breadwinner of his family, and the illegal detention subjected him and his entire family to financial and psychological trauma and torture.

In addition, he argued that confining him deprived his freedom of movement against his will. He also asserted that he suffered loss of income at being held by the hospital, which made it difficult for him to resume his carpentry business, which would have enabled him to raise the outstanding bill.

The hospital did not respond to the case. Instead, it objected, claiming that there was a separate case before the magistrate’s court over the bill issue.

It argued that the case was an abuse of the court process.

The judge observed that the hospital had a chance to file its response and submissions, as the court had directed.

He said he gave it another 10 days to comply. Nevertheless, its lawyer never appeared when the case was mentioned on October 5, 2023. The case was again mentioned on July 8, 2024, and the lawyer did not appear again.

“The long and short of the above chronicle is that the Respondent, despite never bothered to put any response or file closing submissions to this Petition. Even its earlier halfhearted attempt to file a preliminary objection was a nonstarter. The instant petition what I would thus aptly describe as a soliloquy” said Justice Mugambi.