Osuagwu v. Gila Regional Medical Center

938 F. Supp. 2d 1166, 2013 WL 1491878, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53345
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Osuagwu v. Gila Regional Medical Center. Read the opinion of the Court — 850 F. Supp. 2d 1216
District Court, D. New Mexico·Decided February 25, 2013·No. No. 11cv1 MV/SMV·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MARTHA VÁZQUEZ, District Judge.

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendants Dr. Jean Remillard’s, Dr. Gregory Koury’s, Dr. Michael Sergeant’s, Dr. Mark Donnell’s, Dr. Ronald Deyhle’s, and Don White’s Motion for Summary Judgment, filed December 20, 2012 (Doc. 196). The motion raises' a single issue: whether these Defendants are individually shielded from suit because pro-se Plaintiff Dr. Chinonyerem Osuagwu signed a contract agreeing to be bound by Article XIV of the Medical Staff Bylaws of Gila Regional Medical Center (“Gila Regional”), which grants to them absolute immunity from suit under the condition that they have acted in good faith and without malice and at the behest of Gila Regional. The Court will grant summary judgment on all claims in favor of Defendants Sergeant, Donnell, and Deyhle because there is nothing in the record to show that they may have acted in bad faith or with malice. The Court will deny summary judgment in favor of Defendants Remillard, Koury, and White, however, because either they acted without authority or because there are genuine issues of material fact whether these individuals acted in good faith and without malice during these proceedings.

I. Applicable Standards.

On a motion for summary judgment, the Court

[1169]*1169view[s] the evidence and its reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the non-movant. Summary judgment is appropriate if “the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(a). An issue of fact is genuine “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the non-moving party” on the issue. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248,106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). An issue of fact is material “if under the substantive law it is essential to the proper disposition of the claim.”

Thomas v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 631 F.3d 1153, 1160 (10th Cir.2011) (citations omitted). The ultimate inquiry in a summary judgment disposition is “whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).1

II. General Undisputed Facts.

Plaintiff has sued Gila Regional and the individual Defendants for violation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and he has also sued the individual Defendants for intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and malicious abuse of process under state law. The Court has already granted summary judgment in favor of Plaintiff on his § 1983 claim against Gila Regional. Specifically, I found that Gila Regional, acting through its Medical Executive Committee (“MEC”), of which Dr. Sergeant and Dr. Koury were both members and for which they temporarily served as the head for a period of time, its Fair Hearing Committee (“FHC”), and its Board of Trustees

violated Plaintiffs rights to due process by: (i) extending the November 17, 2008 summary suspension, which had expired by operation of the Bylaws; (ii) imposing harsher, extended suspensions on November 24, 2008, without first making a finding that Plaintiff had ever placed patients in imminent danger, or giving Plaintiff pre-deprivation notice of the charges against him; and (iii) reporting the adverse action to the New Mexico Medical Board, based on suspensions that had automatically expired under operation of the Bylaws. Further, the Court finds that Gila Regional Medical Center, through its MEC, Board, and FHC, violated Plaintiffs due-process rights in the post-deprivation proceedings by (i) allowing Dr. Remillard to serve as accuser, investigator, prosecutor, and judge and; (ii) refusing to produce the reviewers and other physicians who had accused, or allegedly had accused, Plaintiff of substandard medical practices. Finally, the Court finds that the Board violated Plaintiffs post-deprivation due-process rights by: (i) considering evidence against which Plaintiff was never given the opportunity to defend or dispute, including at least two cases and Dr. Montoya’s opinion as an expert; (ii) failing to rule on the FHC’s recommendations to reject the MEC’s November 24, 2008 recommendations, which had expired; and (iii) adopting the MEC’s December 29, 2008 recommendations for suspension, which Plaintiff was never allowed to challenge through any [1170]*1170process, and which had no support in the evidentiary- record.

December 21, 2012 Memorandum Opinion & Order (“Opinion”) at 34-35, 938 F.Supp.2d 1142, 1165-66, 2012 WL 7869677 (Doc. 198). The Court required Gila Regional to “reinstate Plaintiffs medical privileges, and prepare and send the necessary documentation to recall and retract its adverse reports to the New Mexico Medical Board and the National Practitioner Data Bank, attaching to its letters this Opinion and the Court’s March 27, 2012 Opinion.” Id. at 1166, at 35. The individual Defendants now assert that they are absolutely immune from suit on all of the Plaintiffs claims.

As part of his contract to provide medical services for Gila Regional in exchange for guaranteed income of $22,500/month, Plaintiff executed an agreement stating that he would be bound by Gila Regional’s Bylaws. See Doc. 196, Ex. C at 2, ¶. 5; id. Ex. A at 4-5; Doc. 199 at 8, ¶¶ 10-11. The Bylaws in effect at this time contain an immunity provision providing:

ARTICLE XIV IMMUNITY FROM LIABILITY

14.1 Article XIV, shall be express conditions to any practitioner’s application for or exercise of clinical privileges at GRMC.
14.2 That any act, communication, report, recommendation or disclosure, with respect to any such practitioner, performed or made in good faith and without malice and at the request of an authorized representative of this or any other health care facility, for the purpose of achieving and maintaining quality patient care in this or any other health care facility, shall be privileged.
14.3 That such privilege shall extend to members of the hospital’s Medical Staff and of its Board of Trustees, its CEO and representatives, and to third parties who may be authorized to receive, release or act upon the same.
14.4 That there shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be absolute immunity from civil liability arising from any such act, communication, report, recommendation or disclosure, even where the information involved would otherwise be deemed privileged.

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Osuagwu v. Gila Regional Medical Center, 938 F. Supp. 2d 1166, 2013 WL 1491878, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53345 (D.N.M. 2013).

938 F. Supp. 2d 1166 (Osuagwu v. Gila Regional Medical Center) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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