Leopold v. Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging Co.

2013 Ohio 3107, 994 N.E.2d 431, 136 Ohio St. 3d 257
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 18, 2013
Docket2012-0438
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2013 Ohio 3107 (Leopold v. Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leopold v. Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging Co., 2013 Ohio 3107, 994 N.E.2d 431, 136 Ohio St. 3d 257 (Ohio 2013).

Opinions

[258]*258O’Donnell, J.

{¶ 1} Danielle Laurence appeals from a judgment of the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirming a decision of the trial court denying her request for a protective order seeking to prohibit Stephen Stillwagon and Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging Company from using statements she made to emergency room personnel that she had produced in a prior lawsuit she filed against Stillwagon and Ace Doran arising out of the same accident. The appellate court held that Laurence waived the physician-patient privilege by filing a personal injury action seeking recovery for her injuries and therefore the trial court correctly denied her request for a protective order.

{¶ 2} In this circumstance, we need not reach the waiver issue to resolve this case. Pursuant to the statute establishing the physician-patient privilege, at least two separate provisions apply and specify that the statements made by Laurence are no longer privileged. For these reasons, we affirm the judgment of the appellate court.

Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 3} On March 6, 2008, a multivehicle accident occurred on Interstate 90 in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the vehicles involved were a tractor-trailer driven by Stephen Stillwagon transporting goods for Ace Doran and two cars, one driven by Laurence and one driven by Todd Leopold. Emergency medical personnel transported Laurence to MetroHealth Medical Center for treatment as a result of the accident. At that time, she told emergency room personnel that she had hit a car in front of her and then was hit from behind by a semi and pushed into a concrete wall.

{¶ 4} In November 2008, Laurence sued Stillwagon and Ace Doran, seeking recovery for personal injuries she suffered in the accident. In discovery, she [259]*259produced her medical records, which defense counsel used when they deposed her; after that deposition, she voluntarily dismissed her case.

{¶ 5} In October 2009, Todd Leopold and his wife, Linda, sued Stillwagon, Ace Doran, and Ace Doran Brokerage Company, seeking recovery for injuries sustained in the same accident. They dismissed the brokerage company and amended their complaint to add Laurence, asserting that her negligence had caused the accident. Laurence then cross-claimed against Stillwagon and Ace Doran for contribution or indemnification, claiming that Stillwagon had caused the collision. Stillwagon and Ace Doran thereafter cross-claimed against her for indemnification or contribution, contending that she had caused the accident.

{¶ 6} On April 29, 2011, Laurence moved for a protective order, seeking to preclude counsel from using the medical records she produced in her 2008 lawsuit. She claimed that the physician-patient privilege protected her medical records from disclosure and that her prior waiver of the privilege applied only to her 2008 lawsuit. The court denied her motion, and she appealed. The appellate court affirmed the denial, concluding that “Laurence’s decision to file a claim of personal injury against [Stillwagon and Ace Doran], which was based upon the same accident that underlies the basis for the claims and defenses posed by the parties herein, served to waive her physician-patient privilege with respect to that accident pursuant to R.C. 2371.02(B).” 2012-Ohio-497, 2012 WL 426283, at ¶ 15.

{¶ 7} We accepted Laurence’s discretionary appeal, in which she claims that a patient’s production of medical records in discovery in a civil action does not waive the physician-patient privilege for all subsequent litigation. She asserts that the trial and appellate courts have created a judicial waiver of the statutory physician-patient privilege and maintains that Ohio citizens have a constitutional and statutory right to have Ohio courts enforce the physician-patient privilege. She further relies on Hageman v. Southwest Gen. Health Ctr., 119 Ohio St.3d 185, 2008-Ohio-3343, 893 N.E.2d 153, ¶ 17, for the proposition that “when the cloak of confidentiality that applies to medical records is waived for the purposes of litigation, the waiver is limited to that case.”

{¶ 8} The Leopolds concur. They contend that Laurence’s emergency room records are inadmissible because her medical condition is not at issue in this case, and they maintain that she preserved the privilege by voluntarily dismissing her 2008 lawsuit, thereby preventing disclosure of her records to the public. They urge us to follow Hageman and hold that the privilege is not waived when a medical condition is not at issue in a subsequent civil action, the medical records have not been made public, and a timely objection has been raised.

[260]*260{¶ 9} Stillwagon and Ace Doran claim that Laurence waived the physician-patient privilege because she voluntarily produced her medical records in related litigation she filed against them, and upon dismissal, she neither requested that her testimony be sealed nor insisted that the medical records be destroyed or returned to her. They acknowledge that the purpose of the physician-patient privilege is to protect the privacy of the patient, but that purpose is not served when a litigant has previously disclosed medical information protected by the privilege in separate litigation involving the same defendants. They distinguish Hageman because it concerned the liability of an attorney for the unauthorized disclosure to a third party of medical information obtained through litigation that arose from a different and unrelated set of circumstances, while this case concerns the same accident and involves the same parties originally sued by Laurence.

{¶ 10} Accordingly, the issue presented in this appeal is whether the physician-patient privilege protects medical records that a patient has previously disclosed in discovery to some of the same parties in previous litigation arising from the same accident.

Law and Analysis

{¶ 11} R.C. 2317.02 provides:

The following persons shall not testify in certain respects:
* * *
(B)(1) A physician * * * concerning a communication made to the physician * * * by a patient in that relation or the physician’s * * * advice to a patient, except as otherwise provided in this division, division (B)(2), and division (B)(3) of this section, and except that, if the patient is deemed by section 2151.421 of the Revised Code to have waived any testimonial privilege under this division, the physician may be compelled to testify on the same subject.

(Emphasis added.)

{¶ 12} At issue in this case is a legislatively created exception to this privilege contained in R.C. 2317.02(B)(1)(a)(iii), which is further restricted by R.C. 2317.02(B)(3)(a).

{¶ 13} R.C. 2317.02(B)(1)(a)(iii) provides:

[261]*261The testimonial privilege established under this division does not apply, and a physician * * * may testify or may be compelled to testify, in any of the following circumstances:
(a) In any civil action, * * * or in connection with a claim under Chapter 4123. of the Revised Code, under any of the following circumstances:
% * *
(iii) If a medical claim [or] * * * any other type of civil action,

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Leopold v. Ace Doran Hauling & Rigging Co.
2013 Ohio 3107 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 Ohio 3107, 994 N.E.2d 431, 136 Ohio St. 3d 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leopold-v-ace-doran-hauling-rigging-co-ohio-2013.