Opinion ID: 1090894
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: RICHMOND v. BROWN

Text: In Richmond, Dr. Brown propounded interrogatories, where he requested the following: INTERTOGATORY NO. 1: Please state each and every respect in which you contend that [defendant] breached the standard of care applicable to him in connection with your care, being specific as to what it is you claim he did that she [sic] should have done, or did not do that she [sic] should have done. INTERTOGATORY NO. 2: Please state, with respect to each of the allegations of substandard care made in your answers to Interrogatory No. 1, what it is that you claim the standard of care applicable to Dr. Brown requires, and your basis for so defining the standard of care. In response, the plaintiff answered that she was not an expert on the medical standards of care and that all she knew was that she suffered harm or complications which she simply did not feel should have occurred under the circumstances.... Dr. Brown then filed a Motion to Compel. The district court granted the doctor's motion and ordered that the plaintiff state all the grounds of malpractice. Thereafter, the court of appeal granted the plaintiff's application for supervisory review, stating in pertinent part that: These interrogatories go well beyond the scope of the matters before the medical review panel. No lawsuit has been filed in this matter, and we consider these interrogatoriesasking the patient to relate the health care provider's conduct to standards of care yet unestablished by the panelto be too burdensome. The defendant sought review from this Court. As noted above, this Court consolidated the three matters, granted the defendants' writ applications, and remanded the matter to the court of appeal. [6] On remand, the court of appeal reversed the district court ruling, which ordered the plaintiff to answer the defendant's written interrogatories. As noted in Arnold, the court of appeal found that interrogatories are not allowed in the medical review panel. In sum, the court of appeal held that: 1)the plaintiffs are not required to allege the health care provider's applicable standard of care in the medical panel review proceeding; 2) the plaintiffs' claims that failed to state their injuries suffered or the facts of causation linking those injuries to the health care provider were insufficient; and 3) the health care providers can not propound interrogatories in the medical review panel proceeding. [7] The court of appeal found that Solomon, supra could be distinguished from the cases at hand in that Solomon did not involve a discovery dispute over interrogatories. Specifically, the court of appeal held that: ... Discovery in the present non-judicial proceeding is not in keeping with the intended nature of the proceeding as described by our Supreme Court nor is discovery through written interrogatories expressly provided in the MMA ... Section 1299.47(D) of the MMA provides for the form of evidence to be considered by the medical review panel. The section allows for the taking of depositions by the parties or at the request of any two panel members. La. R.S. 40:1299.47(D)(3) and (4).... Section 1299.47(D), when considered as a whole, addresses the written evidence which may be obtained for submission to the panel. Its aim is not for broad discovery process by the parties, but for submission of evidence to the panel. It does not allow for written interrogatories to be exchanged between the parties. The court of appeal concluded that the Medical Malpractice Act MMA was subject to strict interpretation and that the objective of an efficient, non-judicial screening for medical malpractice claims would be defeated by an open-ended discovery process with attendant motion practice at the district court level. The court of appeal noted that according to LSA-R.S. 40:1299.47(B)(2)(a), [8] the MMA permits a health care provider the right to raise any exception in court prior to the completion of the panel proceedings. The court of appeal concluded that a complaint should clearly set forth the facts forming the basis of a malpractice claim to give notice of the civil action. The court of appeal also found that LSA-R.S. 40:1299.47(D) does not allow the parties to exchange written interrogatories since the MMA was subject to strict interpretation. The defendants appealed this ruling.