O'Brien v. American Medical Response of Massachusetts

31 Mass. L. Rptr. 495
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedSeptember 12, 2013
DocketNo. HDCV201100713B
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 31 Mass. L. Rptr. 495 (O'Brien v. American Medical Response of Massachusetts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Brien v. American Medical Response of Massachusetts, 31 Mass. L. Rptr. 495 (Mass. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

McDonough, Edward J., J.

This discovery dispute arises in the context of a multi-vehicle motor vehicle accident occurring in Holyoke, Massachusetts on December 15, 2010. In essence, plaintiff Stephen O’Brien alleges he was rear-ended by defendant Jeremy Jandreau. Moments after the rear end collision, plaintiff alleges his vehicle was struck from the front by a van operated by the defendant Kenroy Smikle, the driver employed by defendant American Medical Response of Massachusetts, Inc. (“AMR”). Plaintiffs brief represents that his client’s car was demolished and that he suffered serious injuries.

1. With respect to the AMR driver personnel file, and investigative reports, the motion is allowed

AMR shall supplement its document response making clear that it has produced the driver’s entire personnel file and shall make clear that it has produced the results of any and all investigations conducted and incident reports with respect to the subject motor vehicle accident and its defendant driver. The e-mail response dated June 16, 2013 from counsel for AMR that “we are not authorized to provide any further documents in response to your letters,” was, without saying so, highly suggestive to plaintiff that AMR was withholding certain unspecified responsive documents. The AMR opposition to the motion confirms this. The AMR Quality Assurance Reports pertaining to this defendant driver should have been specifically identified in the AMR response as the documents AMR was withholding under a claim of privilege under Martel v. MVTA, 403 Mass 1 (1988). In fact, as was explained nearly a year ago to AMR’s counsel by plaintiffs counsel in his August 12, 2012 letter, under Martel, such reports of incidents and investigations are not made privileged from discovery. Martel’s holding (as is clear from the AMR’s own quotes in AMR’s opposition to the motion) went strictly to the issue of admissibility, not discovery. (“Although not itself a ‘repair’ of a dangerous condition, the investigation is the prerequisite to any remedial safely measure.” Martel, supra at 5.) Indeed, AMR’s counsel well knows that it is impossible for a judge and opposing counsel to address admissibility unless and until the documents are first made available in discovery. Depending upon the particular entries in the AMR Quality Assurance Reports (or any other investigation documents or incident reports AMR has withheld) the reports may or may not be admissible on the issue of negligence. But a party may not (a) withhold documents, (b) arrogate to itself the role as sole arbiter of the document’s admissibility, and (c) then use its own self-serving inadmissibility ruling as an excuse or pretext to continue to withhold the documents as irrelevant. “A request for discovery should be considered relevant if there is any possibility that the information sought may be relevant to the subject matter of the action.” Miller u. Doctor’s Gen. Hosp., 76 F.R.D. 136, 138-39 (W.D.Okla. 1977) (emphasis added); Gagne v. Reddy, 104 F.R.D. 454, 456 (D.Mass. 1984) (“discovery should ordinarily be allowed under the concept of relevancy unless it is clear that the information sought can have no possible bearing upon the subject matter of the action”). See also Hope v. Double E Corp., 14 Mass. L. Rptr. 528 (Mass.Super.Ct. 2002) (Fahey). The AMR Quality Assurance Reports not identified or described in AMR’s document response may well prove to be inadmissible as evidence of subsequent remedial measures to prove negligence. But it has long been settled that not all evidence of subsequent remedial measures is inadmissible. Such measures may be admissible on the issues of control or feasibility.1 And even if the trial judge deems these reports inadmissible as evidence of negligence (it is wrong for AMR to assume the admissibility issue would be resolved pretrial by a motion judge addressing only a discovery dispute), the reports may reveal party admissions, evidence of notice or other relevant information leading to other discoverable or independently admissible evidence.

The same holds true with respect to the AMR documents in its file concerning an investigation which AMR [496]*496conducted concerning an accident in which it claims the defendant AMR driver in this case was wrongly implicated for alleged drug possession when he was misidentified as the driver’s twin brother. The fact is that these documents are contained in the AMR file on this defendant AMR driver. Plaintiff need not accept on faith AMR’s characterization of these documents. Plaintiff is entitled to verify the AMR representations in this regard. These investigative documents shall be produced under the terms and conditions of the parties’ previously agreed to protective order in order to protect any legitimate privacy interests. The supplemental response of AMR shall clarify which further documents not addressed in this order which AMR may be withholding, if any, and shall contain an appropriate privilege log if it is claiming privilege with respect to any withheld documents, including but not limited to any documents reflecting any investigation, formal or informal, of the subject accident.

2. With respect to cellular telephone information concerning the AMR driver, the motion is allowed

The right to privacy protections under General Laws chapter 215, §1B would not extend to a cellular telephone number of a commercial operator alleged to have caused a serious motor vehicle accident. Such information does not constitute an “unreasonable, substantial or serious interference with [the driver’s] privacy.” Significantly, in his deposition, the defendant AMR driver raised no privacy objection or concerns when he was asked for this cell phone number. It is revealing that in its opposition, AMR has apparently abandoned its privacy objection with respect to the cell phone number. In its opposition, AMR reveals that it provided its driver’s cell phone number to plaintiff on July 12, 2013. AMR claims, therefore, that plaintiffs motion on this issue is rendered moot. But plaintiffs motion to compel is dated June 26, 2013, leading me to conclude that AMR never would have produced this information on July 12th—the date of AMR’s opposition—had AMR not forced plaintiff to prepare and serve this motion to compel. Obviously, surrendering discoverable documents—or revealing their existence for the first time—only when one has been confronted with a motion to compel—is hardly proper way to conduct discovery. Discovery is not a game of “hide the ball" until your opponent is forced to take you to task on inappropriate or baseless objections. “Our system of discovery was designed to increase the likelihood that justice will be served in each case, not to promote principles of gamesmanship and deception in which the person who hides the ball most effectively wins the case.” Abrahamsen v. Trans-State Express, 92 F.3d 425, 428-29 (6th Cir. Ohio 1996) (Defendant’s truck company and driver appealed judge’s granting plaintiffs motion for relief from a judgment, and sua sponte entering judgment for plaintiffs in negligence action where defendant withheld discovery. Affirming the order, the court of appeals held that defense counsel’s failure to disclose defendant truck driver’s admission of liability, and his failure to prevent defendant truck driver from perjuring himself, warranted relief from the jury’s apportionment of liability and the entry of judgment holding defendants 100 percent liable for the accident);

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Bluebook (online)
31 Mass. L. Rptr. 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/obrien-v-american-medical-response-of-massachusetts-masssuperct-2013.