Liss & Marion, P.C. v. Recordex Acquisition Corp.

937 A.2d 503, 2007 Pa. Super. 351, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3913
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 28, 2007
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 937 A.2d 503 (Liss & Marion, P.C. v. Recordex Acquisition Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Liss & Marion, P.C. v. Recordex Acquisition Corp., 937 A.2d 503, 2007 Pa. Super. 351, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3913 (Pa. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION BY

McEWEN, P.J.E.:

¶ 1 Appellant, Recordex Acquisition Corp. (hereinafter “Recordex”), 1 appeals from the judgment of $594,301.05 entered against it and in favor of appellee, Liss & Marion, P.C., on behalf of itself and other similarly situated individuals and entities. Appellee, in this class action lawsuit, sought recovery of the excessive fees charged by Recordex for the copying of medical records which the members of the class had either requested or subpoenaed from a health care provider. We affirm.

¶ 2 The Pennsylvania legislature, in 1986, enacted 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 6151-6160, commonly known as the Medical Records Act (“the Act”), in order to allow litigants to use certified copies of medical records in any trial, hearing, deposition or other judicial or administrative proceeding in lieu of the original records, and without providing preliminary testimony as to foundation, identity and authentication of the records. See: 42 Pa.C.S. § 6151. The Act also mandated the prices to be charged for such copies by health care providers or their designated agents:

... The payment shall not exceed $15 for searching for and retrieving the records, $1 per page for paper copies for the first 20 pages, 75<t per page for pages 21 through 60 and 25<t per page *507 for pages 61 and thereafter; $1.50 per page for copies from microfilm; plus the actual cost of postage, shipping or delivery. No other charges for the retrieval, copying and shipping or delivery of medical records other than those set forth in this paragraph shall be permitted without prior approval of the party requesting the copying of the medical records....

42 Pa.C.S. § 6152(a)(2)(i) (emphasis supplied). 2

¶3 Although the Medical Records Act refers only to copies made from paper originals or from records stored on microfilm, hospitals and health care providers now routinely store medical records using other forms of electronic media, such as digital storage devices. Recordex conceded that it charged, as a matter of company policy, the microfilm rate for copies of records stored electronically. Appellee contends that this practice was in violation of the Act, and, on February 10, 2003, filed a class action complaint on behalf of all individuals and entities that had requested or subpoenaed medical records from a health care provider and paid the microfilm rate for copies that were stored electronically. 3 Shortly thereafter, appellee filed an amended complaint, and a second amended complaint. The second amended complaint, filed on April 28, 2003, contained the following five counts: (1) violation of the Medical Records Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 6152, (2) negligent misrepresentation and/or fraud, (3) violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, 73 P.S. § 201-1, et seq., (4) breach of fiduciary duty and/or confidential relationship, and (5) breach of implied contract. Recordex filed timely preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer to all counts. Following argument, the esteemed Judge C. Darnell Jones, II, by order dated November 14, 2003, sustained in part and overruled in part Recordex’ preliminary objections, dismissing with prejudice four of the five counts listed in the complaint, leaving appellee’s allegation of breach of implied contract as the only count to survive preliminary objections.

¶ 4 Appellee, in March of 2004, filed a motion for class certification, and a certification hearing was held before the learned Judge Mark I. Bernstein, on May 3, 2004. Although Judge Bernstein denied certification to the proposed class of the individual plaintiffs whose medical records were requested, 4 he granted certification to the following class:

All individuals and entities who, with respect to a request or subpoena for medical records or charts of health care provider or employee of any health care provider licensed under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, were *508 billed for or paid to one or both of the defendants either or each of the following: (1) a charge for copies of records greater than the amounts prescribed by the Secretary of Health under the Medical Records Act (“MRA”), 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. Section 6152 et seq.; and (2) an unauthorized and/or unreasonable charge for copies from media not specifically provided for in the MRA. The class shall exclude class counsel, their law firm, and any lawyer or employee of their law firm.

Order, July 9, 2004. Recordex filed a motion for reconsideration, which was promptly denied by the trial court.

¶ 5 Appellee filed a motion for summary judgment on April 13, 2005. Less than one month later, Recordex filed a memorandum in opposition to appellee class’s motion, and a cross-motion for summary judgment. By order dated June 9, 2005, the trial court granted the motion of appel-lee, and entered judgment “in favor of the plaintiff class and against the defendants, in an amount to be determined following a full accounting, at defendants’ expense, of all sums defendants overbilled the class members.” 5 Order, June 9, 2005. The trial court further directed Recordex to provide to appellee a computerized list of the following information: 6 (1) the name of the requesting class member, (2) the name of the person or entity for whom the records were requested, and (3) the number of non-microfilm pages produced and charged at microfilm rate. Although Re-cordex filed a motion requesting that the trial court certify the class certification order for interlocutory appeal, the trial court declined to do so. A nonjury trial on damages was thereafter held and, on November 29, 2005, the trial court entered a verdict for appellee and against Recordex in the amount of $479,472.59. Recordex filed a timely motion for post trial relief that was denied by the trial court. Appel-lee also filed a motion for post trial relief, requesting that the court mold the verdict to include prejudgment interest. The trial court granted the motion and, by order dated June 14, 2006, molded the verdict to include interest in the amount of $114,828.46. Thereafter, on June 28, 2006, judgment on the molded verdict was entered in the amount of $594,301.05 in favor of appellee and against Recordex. This timely appeal followed. 7

¶ 6 Recordex, in the brief it filed in support of this appeal, raises the following seven questions for our review: 8

Whether appellee class sustained its burden of meeting the prerequisites of Pa.R.C.P. 1702 and 1708 for certification as a class action?
Whether the Medical Records Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 6151 et seq. (“the Act”), permits a private cause of action for breach of contract in which the Act is an implied term?
*509

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
937 A.2d 503, 2007 Pa. Super. 351, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liss-marion-pc-v-recordex-acquisition-corp-pasuperct-2007.