Courtney R. Robbins v. The Trustees of Indiana University and Clarian Health Partners, Inc.

45 N.E.3d 1, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 663, 2015 WL 5771814
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 2, 2015
Docket49A04-1412-CT-583
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 45 N.E.3d 1 (Courtney R. Robbins v. The Trustees of Indiana University and Clarian Health Partners, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Courtney R. Robbins v. The Trustees of Indiana University and Clarian Health Partners, Inc., 45 N.E.3d 1, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 663, 2015 WL 5771814 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

BROWN, Judge.

[1] Courtney R. Robbins appeals the trial court’s grant' of summary judgment in favor of the Trustees of Indiana University and Ciarían Health Partners, Inc. She [4]*4raises the following two issues, which we revise and restate as:,

I. Whether the trial court -erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the Trustees and Ciarían on the issue of vicarious liability; and
II. Whether the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the Trustees on the issue of negligent hiring.

We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[2] In September 2010, Tiffaney De-Bow, a licensed practical nurse, applied for a job at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her application revealed that she had been a nurse for twelve years and had worked at three hospitals and a nursing home. Her application also revealed that she had been convicted of misdemean- or battery in May 2009. When questioned about the conviction, DeBow explained that during a confrontation with a woman who had made comments about DeBow’s daughter oh the Internet, DeBow poked the woman on the forehead.

[3] As part of the application process, DeBow also read and signed the Indiana University Department of Medicine Commitment to Confidentiality Agreement, which provides in relevant part as follows:

The IU Department of Medicine regards the security and confidentiality of its data and information to be of utmost importance. Each information user holds a position of trust in which he or 'she must preserve the confidentiality, privacy and security of Indiana University (IU), Indiana University Foundation (IUF), practice plan, patient medical record and protected health information (PHI) that is accessed, maintained, or transmitted in any form or medium.

Appellant’s Appendix at 49.

The Confidentiality Agreement also provided in part:

As an information user:
a. I will only access, use (read, add, change, or delete), or disclose information for which I have a business reáson and am authorized to do so. At no time will I access, use, or disclose confidential or sensitive information to any person or third party for a personal, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal reason. I will not share my password(s) nor will I use a sign-on/password that is not assigned to me.
b. I understand that my obligation to safeguard confidentiality at all times, both on1 duty and off-duty, remains' in full force during the entire term of my employment/affiliation and continues in effect after such employment/affiliation terminates....

Id.

After DeBow completed her employment application, an independent company conducted a pre-employment background check on her for the Trustees. The search revealed the misdemeanor battery conviction, which resulted in a one-year sentence with all but four days suspended, community service, six months on probation and twelve anger management classes. The search also revealed dismissed charges for class A misdemeanor criminal mischief in 2006 and class A misdemeanor driving while suspended in 2008 as well as a probation violation.

Following the background check, DeBow was offered a position providing health care services to the patients of the School of Medicine’s Gastroenterology Department. After DeBow accepted the position, Nada Phoenix, acting on behalf of the School of Medicine, submitted an Access Request to Ciarían Data Security to provide DeBow a username and password so she could access two-electronic medical [5]*5records systems owned by Ciarían, Phoenix also submitted DeBow’s signed Responsibility Statement wherein DeBow agreed to keep information in the .medical records confidential and not to disclose it for personal, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal reasons. Both the Access Request and Responsibility Statement identified DeBow as a non-Clarian employee.

[7] • On October 11, 2010, her first day of work, DeBow began accessing the medical records of Robbins and her children. Specifically, a medical records access report shows that on October 11 and 13, DeBow accessed the medical records of Robbins and her children forty-two times between 2:05 p.m. and 4:28 p.m. Robbins was not a patient of the gastroenterology department, and the medical records De-Bow accessed were not created in connection with treatment and care of Robbins at the School of Medicine. DeBow found the information in one of the medical records systems owned by Ciarían. On October 13, DeBow posted medical information about Robbins obtained from these records on Robbins’s former boyfriend’s internet blog. When confronted by her employer, DeBow admitted what she had done and that she knew it was wrong. She admitted “that there was no legitimate business reason for her to access the records and explained that her sole motivation was that ... [she] desired revenge.” Id.. at 54.

[8] Pursuant to a plea agreement executed in. February 2012, DeBow pled guilty in federal court to the felony charge of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information for obtaining Robbins’s health information during the course of her employment with the intent to transfer and use that information for personal gain and malicious harm and to embarrass Robbins, and DeBow was sentenced to probation for a term of three years and was fined $1,000.

[9] In November 2012, Robbins filed an amended complaint against the Trustees and Ciarían wherein she alleged that the defendants, were vicariously liable for the actions of DeBow, who allegedly committed the torts of invasion of privacy by the public disclosure of private facts and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Robbins alternatively argued that if the Trustees were not vicariously liable to her for these acts, they were liable to her for negligently hiring DeBow.

[10] The Trustees and Ciarían filed summary judgment motions. The Trustees designated DeBow’s affidavit in support of their motion. In the affidavit, De-Bow explained that she accessed Robbins’s medical records for “personal reasons.” Id. at 57. According to DeBow, she and Robbins “had been involved in an acrimonious personal feud for many years and that was [her] motivation to disclose protected medical information.” Id. DeBow further explained that she “was acting on [her] own initiative and not within the scope of [her] employment when [she] accessed and published [ ] Robbins’ records,” that she “was not involved in any way in the provision of medical care to [ ] Robbins or her children,” and that she “knew it was against [her] employer’s policies and rules and [her] acts were not part of [her] job.” Id. Following a hearing, the trial' court granted summary judgment in favor of the Trustees and Ciarían.

Discussion

[11] Summary judgment is appropriate only when there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment-as a matter of law. Ind. Trial Rule 56(C).. In reviewing a trial court’s ruling on -summary judgment, this court stands in the shoes of the trial court and applies the same standard in determining whether to affirm or reverse the grant of summary judgment. Doe v. La[6]*6fayette Sch. Corp., 846 N.E.2d 691

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
45 N.E.3d 1, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 663, 2015 WL 5771814, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/courtney-r-robbins-v-the-trustees-of-indiana-university-and-clarian-indctapp-2015.