Cassidy v. Crozer Chester Medical Center

18 Pa. D. & C.5th 1
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County
DecidedNovember 10, 2010
Docketno. 07-08172
StatusPublished

This text of 18 Pa. D. & C.5th 1 (Cassidy v. Crozer Chester Medical Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassidy v. Crozer Chester Medical Center, 18 Pa. D. & C.5th 1 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2010).

Opinion

BURR, J,

The plaintiffs, Dawn and Anthony Cassidy, as co-administrators of the Estate of Brynn Elizabeth Cassidy, deceased, and Dawn Cassidy and Anthony Cassidy, individually, and in their own right (hereinafter “plaintiffs”), have appealed from this court’s denial of their motion for post-trial relief and entiy of judgment in favor of the defendants, Crozer Chester Medical Center (hereinafter “CCMC”), et alia. The plaintiffs have submitted as their one claim of error whether the court properly excluded an “Event Follow Up” form upon which a CCMC nurse had checked a matter listed under the heading “Medication Event Data” indicating that an error of that kind had been the cause of Brynn Cassidy’s death.1 Since medication error has never [3]*3been alleged by the plaintiffs as a theory of recovery in [4]*4this medical malpractice action and the plaintiffs never deposed the nurse who made the entry, the court appropriately excluded this evidence on grounds that it was irrelevant and would have been confusing and misleading for the jury under Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence 402 and 403.

Brynn Elizabeth Cassidy died in útero at the defendant CCMC during the afternoon of July 5, 2006 subsequent to her mother’s injuries sustained in a motor vehicle collision that morning. The plaintiffs charged the defendants with negligence in the failure to properly monitor the decedent’s well-being while in útero and to timely diagnose the abrupted placenta suffered by Mrs. Cassidy in the accident. Following a three week long trial, a jury entered a verdict in favor of the defendants with the finding that the conduct of none of them had fallen below the applicable standard of medical care. Denial of the plaintiffs’ motion for post-trial relief and the entry of judgment in the defendants’ favor by order of this court gave rise to this timely filed appeal.

The plaintiffs have submitted the following concise statement of errors complained of on appeal:

“STATEMENT OF ERRORS
[10.] Plaintiffs pursue one issue on appeal.
[11.] The court erred and abused its discretion by precluding the Event Follow-Up form in its redacted form from evidence. CCMC voluntarily disclosed [5]*5the document in redacted form (thereby waiving any claimed privilege with respect to the unredacted portions of the document), the document was not privileged in the first instance, the document was not excludable as hearsay, it was relevant to matter being tried, and its probative value was not outweighed by the considerations set forth in Pa.R.E. 403. The [t]rial [c]ourt erred and abused its discretion whatever its reasons may have been for precluding the document. This error prejudiced and affected the outcome of the trial, necessitating a new trial on all issues and [defendants.” (plaintiffs’ Concise Statement of Errors Complained of on appeal, p. 5)
Preclusion of CCMC “Event Follow Up ” Form

The plaintiffs proffered, in their motion for post-trial relief, the following timeline referencing their efforts to obtain discovery of the within “Event Follow Up” form from CCMC:

1. July of2007 - Plaintiffs’ first set of interrogatories and request for production of documents were propounded on CCMC. (plaintiffs’ motion for post-trial relief, ¶2)
2. November of 2007 - Plaintiffs’ filed a motion to compel discovery against CCMC. (Id., ¶3)
3. January 8, 2008 - The court granted plaintiffs’ motion to compel and ordered CCMC to provide responses to plaintiffs’ discovery requests. (Id., ¶4)
4. January 17, 2008 - CCMC served its answers and objections to plaintiffs’ discovery requests wherein CCMC objected to the provision of certain information [6]*6and documents including a “Confidential Event Report” on grounds of preclusion pursuant to the Peer Review Protection Act, 63 Pa.C.S. § 425.1, et sequitur.2 (Id, ¶ 5) CCMC additionally served a Privilege Log stating it would not produce a 3 -page “Confidential Event Report reflecting date of July 5, 2006” pursuant to the Peer Review Protection Act. (Id; CCMC’s first Privilege Log appended as Exhibit B to plaintiffs’ motion for post-trial relief)
5. May of 2008 - Plaintiffs propounded a first set of supplemental interrogatories and first set of [7]*7supplemental requests for production of documents and things to all defendants. (Id., ¶ 6)
6. June of 2008 - Plaintiffs filed a second motion to compel a more specific answer to their discovery requests. (Id., ¶ 7)
7. September 11, 2008 - the court granted plaintiffs’ second motion to compel and ordered CCMC to produce full, complete responsive and verified answers to plaintiffs’ interrogatories and document requests. (Id., ¶ 8)
8. October 2008 - CCMC served its answers to the supplemental interrogatories and first set of supplemental requests for production of documents and things to all defendants, wherein CCMC provided a second privilege log stating (1) that a two-page “Confidential Event Report reflecting date of July 5, 2006” was protected by the Peer Review Protection Act, and (2) that CCMC would produce a redacted version of that document to the plaintiffs. (Id., ¶9; CCMC’s second privilege log appended as Exhibit C to the plaintiffs’ Motion for Post-Trial Relief)
9. October 8, 2008 - CCMC produced on or about this date, a redacted two-page copy of the “Crozer Keystone Health System Event Follow-Up” form prepared by CCMC nurses on July 5, 2006, the date of Brynn Cassidy’s death. The form produced by CCMC was two pages long, although originally identified as being three pages long in the first privilege log provided to the plaintiffs. (Id., ¶ 10; CCMC’s first privilege log appended as Exhibit B to plaintiffs’ motion for post-[8]*8trial relief; see also fn 1, supra)
10. September 25,2009 - Plaintiffs filed a third motion to compel discovery. (Id., ¶ 11)
11. October 19, 2009 - Date of this court’s order granting the foregoing motion and compelling CCMC to serve “full, complete, responsive and verified responses” to plaintiffs’ discovery requests or risk the imposition of sanctions. (Id., ¶ 12)
12. December 22, 2009 - Counsel for plaintiffs, Earlie Francis, sent a letter bearing this date to CCMC counsel, Matthew Colavita, requesting an unredacted copy of CCMC’s “Event Follow-Up” form dated July 5, 2006. (Id, ¶ 13)
13. January 8, 2010 - Plaintiffs filed a motion for sanctions against CCMC for not complying with the order of October 19, 2010 to the extent of providing documents requested in the December 22 letter referenced immediately hereinabove. (Id., ¶ 14)
14. Between January 8 and January 27, 2010 - CCMC responded to plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions on the latter date by stating that it had supplied the plaintiffs with a redacted copy of the “Event Follow Up” form. (Id., ¶ 15).

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Bluebook (online)
18 Pa. D. & C.5th 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassidy-v-crozer-chester-medical-center-pactcompldelawa-2010.