Bailey v. Manor Care of Mayfield Hts.

2013 Ohio 4927
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 7, 2013
Docket99798
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 2013 Ohio 4927 (Bailey v. Manor Care of Mayfield Hts.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bailey v. Manor Care of Mayfield Hts., 2013 Ohio 4927 (Ohio Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

[Cite as Bailey v. Manor Care of Mayfield Hts., 2013-Ohio-4927.]

Court of Appeals of Ohio EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION No. 99798

JENNIE BAILEY, ADMINISTRATOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE

vs.

MANOR CARE OF MAYFIELD HTS. ETC., ET AL. DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS

JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED

Civil Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-792974

BEFORE: Jones, J., Boyle, P.J., and Blackmon, J.

RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: November 7, 2013 ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT

Beth A. Nagel Justin S. Greenfelder Dirk E. Riemenschneider Timothy A. Spirko Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, L.L.P. 1375 East Ninth Street Cleveland, Ohio 44114

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE

Martin S. Delahunty, III Richard V. Zurz Slater & Zurz, L.L.P. One Cascade Plaza Suite 2210 Akron, Ohio 44308

LARRY A. JONES, SR., J.: {¶1} Defendant-appellant, Manor Care of Mayfield Heights, Ohio (“Manor Care”),

appeals the trial court’s ruling granting plaintiff-appellee’s, Jennie Bailey, Administrator

of the Estate of Dionne Dennard (“the Estate”), motion to compel and denying Manor

Care’s motion for protective order. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I. Procedural History

{¶2} In 2012, Bailey filed a complaint against Manor Care, ManorCare Health

Services, and various John Does alleging negligence and/or negligence per se, violation of

statutory rights, and wrongful death. The complaint alleged that Dionne Dennard was a

resident of Manor Care in November 2011. On November 12, 2011, due to Dennard’s

failing health and at her family’s insistence, she was transferred to a hospital. Dennard

died at the hospital on November 16, 2011. The complaint alleged that Manor Care

failed to provide adequate medical, nursing, and health care to Dennard causing her

mental, physical, and emotional pain, and ultimately her death.

{¶3} Manor Care answered the complaint on October 29, 2012, generally denying

the allegations. The trial court set the case for a case management conference and, at the

conference, issued standing orders governing the management, procedure, and scheduled

dates for the case.

{¶4} On December 7, 2012, Manor Care moved for an extension to respond to the

Estate’s interrogatories, productions of documents, and request for admissions. The trial

court granted the motion, giving Manor Care leave until January 7, 2013.

{¶5} On January 10, 2013, the Estate filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, dismissing its claims against defendant ManorCare Health Services only. On March 13,

2013, the parties filed a joint motion to continue the trial date and discovery deadlines,

claiming that both parties needed more time to prepare for trial and take depositions. The

trial court denied the motion and set a pretrial for March 19, 2013. After the pretrial, the

court extended the non-expert discovery deadline to May 31, 2013, and the settlement

conference to June 10, 2013, but ordered that all other deadlines were to remain in effect.

{¶6} On April 9, 2013, the Estate moved to compel the production of documents.

In its motion, the Estate alleged that it had learned during the March 25, 2013 deposition

of Saundra Brown, Manor Care’s director of nursing, that there was an investigation “to

determine if there was harm to the resident” after Dennard’s death. The investigation

included taking written witness statements from Manor Care employees. The Estate

argued that Manor Care should have produced the investigatory file subject to its request

for productions of documents and further, that if Manor Care claimed that the documents

were privileged, it had a duty to identify those documents that were being withheld under a

privilege argument, and had failed to do so. The Estate argued that federal law

preempted state law; therefore, the documents pertaining to Dennard were subject to

discovery. The Estate moved to compel Manor Care to produce the documents

associated with the investigation along with attorney fees associated with the motion.

{¶7} Manor Care moved for leave to respond to the motion to compel. The trial

court denied its motion at first, but then granted the motion. In granting Manor Care’s

motion for leave, the trial court noted that Manor Care did not timely respond to discovery requests, did not move for an extension and did not file for a protective order. The court will rule on the [motion to compel] and the response is due by noon on 4/6/13.

{¶8} Manor Care timely filed its brief in opposition and motion for protective order,

arguing that the requested materials were privileged and protected by the attorney-client

and work-product privileges and by the peer- review and quality assurance privileges.

Manor Care further asserted that federal law does not preempt Ohio’s “Peer Review

Privilege” law. In support of its position, Manor Care submitted the affidavit of Manor

Care’s assistant administrator Marie Thur. Thur averred that she had personal and

professional knowledge of all aspects of the reporting and investigation performed

pertaining to Dennard. She also averred that “Quality Assurance Committee

investigations and all related documents and investigative information are intended by

Manor Care as peer review and legal work product documents as defined by Ohio law.”

Thur further averred that

any and all Quality Assurance investigation reports, including but not limited to investigative information pertaining to Dionne Dennard as a result of her residency at Manor Care were prepared and performed within the scope and function of the Quality Assurance Committee at Manor Care.

{¶9} On April 17, 2013, the trial court granted the Estate’s motion to compel. The

court’s order stated:

The court has read and reviewed the motion to compel and brief in

opposition, and finds the plaintiff’s motion well-taken. Therefore the

motion to compel is granted and the defendant is ordered to provide all

requested documents to the plaintiff on or before noon on 4/19/13, with verification to the court of compliance with this order. The court also notes

for the record that in addition to not producing the records pursuant to the

time parameters of the civil rule, the defendant did not seek a protective

order upon receipt of the production request.

II. Law and Analysis

{¶10} Manor Care timely filed its notice of appeal and now raises the following

assignment of error for our review:

I. The trial court erred in granting Plaintiff-Appellee’s motion to compel

production of investigation and incident reports and denying

Defendant-Appellant’s motion for protective order.

{¶11} A trial court’s order compelling the production of allegedly privileged

documents to an opposing party is a final appealable order. Pinnix v. Marc Glassman,

Inc., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga Nos. 97998 and 97999, 2012-Ohio-3263, ¶ 8, citing Cobb v.

Shipman, 11th Dist. Trumbull No. 2011-T-0049, 2012-Ohio-1676, ¶ 34-35; R.C.

2505.02(A)(3) and 2505.02(B)(4). When a discovery issue involves an alleged privilege,

it is a question of law that we review de novo. Pinnix at id. citing Ward v. Summa Health

Sys., 128 Ohio St.3d 212, 2010-Ohio-6275, 943 N.E.2d 514, ¶ 13.

A. Federal Preemption

{¶12} The Estate argues that the trial court correctly found that federal law

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