Opinion ID: 1346296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Refusal to Allow Independent Expert Inspection of Medical Records.

Text: On April 14, 1994, plaintiff alleged that the defendants had destroyed, removed, falsified, or concealed certain medical records. She based this claim on a deposition of a records custodian taken on March 1, 1994. In her deposition, this witness commented that she could not find certain medical notes, that certain other notes did not have her name on them, and that a date had been changed. Plaintiff's counsel filed a motion for continuance and also a motion for examination of original documents. The written motion requested that the court order defendants to turn over the originals of these medical records for independent evaluation by plaintiff's expert document examiner. A hearing was held on this motion on April 15, 1994. At this hearing, the hospital indicated that there was a day on which no medical records were made. Defense counsel asserted that the medical records that plaintiff could not locate were in fact in possession of her counsel in the courtroom. Plaintiff's counsel did not inspect these documents at this time in order to determine whether they were the records that he had been requesting. The trial court ruled that plaintiff's requests should have been made soon after the records custodian's deposition had been taken, instead of waiting until a few days before trial. After repeated attempts to ascertain any factual basis for plaintiff's allegations, the trial court determined that, at worst, there had been a lapse in record keeping. Although the court concluded that this was a fishing expedition, plaintiff's counsel was, nevertheless, allowed an opportunity to inspect the original documents. We find no abuse of discretion in the manner in which this issue was handled by the district court.