Hedrick v. Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Inc.

807 A.2d 584, 2002 Del. Super. LEXIS 140, 2002 WL 664002
CourtSuperior Court of Delaware
DecidedApril 8, 2002
DocketNo. Civil Action 00C-10-187-JO
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 807 A.2d 584 (Hedrick v. Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hedrick v. Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Inc., 807 A.2d 584, 2002 Del. Super. LEXIS 140, 2002 WL 664002 (Del. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

HERLIHY, J.

In circumstances novel to Delaware law, the motion before the Court puts in clear focus two significant but conflicting principles of public policy. One principle is the encouragement of the reporting of suspected child abuse and immunity from liability of those making such reports. The other is the right of redress, if any, of persons falsely accused of child abuse.

The motion for summary judgment of defendant Quest Diagnostic Clinical Laboratories, Inc., provides that' focus. It is a medical testing facility. It received a urine sample marked with the name of plaintiff Jamie Hedrick. She was eight at the time. The testing revealed the presence of sperm. Quest notified Jamie’s doctor who, in turn, notified the authorities.

That notice sparked an investigation. Plaintiff James Hedrick, at the time, was a New Castle County Police captain. His wife, plaintiff Sarah Hedrick, worked at the Philadelphia airport. Each was subjected to public humiliating experiences. Later, it was determined that the urine sample had been mislabeled and was not Jamie’s. She also was subjected to some humiliating and embarrassing experiences.

Delaware statutory law provides qualified immunity from civil liability to anyone participating in good faith in making a report of abuse to the appropriate State agency or notifying the police of suspected child abuse. Since Quest did not make the report to anyone in authority, or the police, the issue presented is whether it is protected by this immunity provision by participating in the making of a report.

The Court holds that Quest participated in the making of the report and is immune from plaintiffs’ civil action. Its motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Quest, under various names, has been a medical testing laboratory for a number of years. It was formerly known as Smith-Kline Beecham Clinical Laboratories or Upjohn. While Quest is a Delaware corporation, the facility which tested the urine sample is located in West Norristown, [586]*586Pennsylvania. It is not licensed in any way in Delaware.

The sample, Quest testified, came to it in October 1998 from defendant Community Medical Care in Newark, Delaware. The sample had been collected from Jamie at the request of Dr. Paula Brenn, Jamie’s doctor, who wanted testing in connection with a suspected urinary tract infection. It came to Quest with the name “Jamie Hedrick” written on it. Quest has a procedure for attaching its own label to the sample container and putting pertinent information into its computer system. Its label also had the name “Jamie Hedrick” on it.

The bulk of testing on these kind of samples occurs early in the morning. A laboratory technician initially tested the sample on October 22, 1998 and noted the presence of sperm. That technician left a note with the sample for Cynthia Mabry to see when she came in on her regular shift that morning. She recalls the note because the technician wrote sperm had been found in a child’s urine. Quest’s procedures for findings of such abnormalities is to retest the sample. Mabry took another sample from the urine and confirmed that there was sperm present.

Mabry then contacted her supervisor, Robert Gilmour. He had over thirty years experience in such testing. He said that he checked the slide Mabry had prepared when she took the rechecked sample. Ma-bry, however, recalls Gilmour preparing a new slide and again confirming the presence of sperm. This difference in recollection, however, has no significance to the current motion. Both then checked Quest’s computer records. Eventually, they peeled off Quest’s label with Jamie’s name on it and saw her name on the label submitted by Community Medical' Care.

After all of this was done, later on the 22nd, Gilmour called Dr. Brenn. She confirmed that Jamie was a female. He explained to Dr. Brenn Quest’s procedures and findings.1 She apparently notified someone in authority. Very shortly after Gilmour spoke to her, the police came to Quest and retrieved the urine sample. Subsequent DNA testing indicated the urine had come from a male.

For purposes of the current motion, the Court will recite from plaintiffs’ complaint what happened to the Hedricks:

8. As a result of Defendants’ false report, Sarah Hedrick was escorted by police officers from her place of employment at the Philadelphia Airport to her home to pick up Jamie.
9. As a result of Defendants’ false report, Jamie and Sarah Hedrick and Jamie’s younger sister, Marissa, were taken by police officers to AI DuPont Hospital for Children were both children were interviewed by John Humphrey of Children’s Advocacy Center, a branch of DHSS.
10. Jamie was required to undergo a rape examination and to be interviewed a second time.
11. As a result of Defendants’ false report, the Hedrick’s home was searched and personal articles were seized.
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19. At all times relevant hereto James Hedrick was a captain in the New Castle County Police and the investigation necessitated by the Defendants’ [587]*587false report was performed by the New Castle County Police.
20. On the evening of October 22, 1998, James Hedrick was on his way home from a Chiefs of Police conference in Salt Lake City. During a layover in Cincinnati, Ohio, Col. Cunningham of the New Castle County Police was repeatedly paged from a number unknown to him, which James Hedrick identified as his wife’s work number. When he finally reached his wife’s shaken coworker, he was advised that New Castle County Police Officers had taken his wife away because there was a problem with Jamie. When he reached the New Castle County Police, he was advised by Sgt. Kathleen Ridel that his eight, year old daughter’s urine had tested positive for sperm, which indicated sexual abuse. He was delayed in Cincinnati by a delayed flight which landed in Baltimore, more than a hour’s drive from his home and family.
21. Exclusively as a result of Defendants’ false report, James Hedrick was treated as a suspect and investigated by the very officers he supervised on a daily basis.2

APPLICABLE STANDARD

To be entitled to summary judgment, the moving party must show there are no genuine issues of material fact and that it is entitled to it as a matter of law.3 The record must be viewed in a light most favorable to the non-moving party.4 If the moving party shows there are no genuine issues of material fact, the burden shifts to the non-moving party to show that there are.5

DISCUSSION

In their complaint, plaintiffs make several different claims of negligence against Quest. They include that Quest did not follow certain standards handling, labeling, processing and retesting the urine sample. Plaintiffs, however, have presented no evidence to support any of these or their other claims of negligence. Instead, at oral argument, they said their interpretation of the Court’s scheduling order did not allow them to develop any record about these claims.

The Court’s scheduling order contained no such limitations.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
807 A.2d 584, 2002 Del. Super. LEXIS 140, 2002 WL 664002, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hedrick-v-quest-diagnostics-clinical-laboratories-inc-delsuperct-2002.