Court Opinion

ID: 9718551
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:27:04.780004+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:00.340860
License: Public Domain

JEFFERSON (Bernard), J.
I concur in the majority’s result but I consider that the result should be placed on a wider ground than that set forth in the majority’s opinion.
The majority concludes that the real party in interest, Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, was not entitled to take the deposition of Dr. Rozansky, the decedent’s psychiatrist, by. giving a narrow interpretation to the psychotherapist-patient privilege, set forth in Evidence Code sections 1010-1015. Northwestern claims in this matter that the psychotherapist-patient privilege has no application because of the patient-litigant exception to this privilege provided by Evidence Code section 1016.
The basis of the majority’s holding against Northwestern is that the right of a party to an existing or prospective lawsuit to invade the privilege is limited to cases in which something more than mere *705speculation supports the invasion. Consequently, the majority concludes that it is not necessary to determine whether petitioner’s filing of a proof-of-death form with Northwestern brought into existence the patient-litigant exception set forth in Evidence Code section 1016. Under Evidence Code section 1016, subdivision (c), the psychotherapist-patient privilege is not applicable to a communication relevant to an issue concerning the mental or emotional condition of the patient if such issue has been tendered by “[a]ny party claiming as a beneficiaiy of the patient through a contract to which the patient is or was a party.”
Although the majority states it is not making a decision as to the applicability of Evidence Code section 1016, its opinion is subject to the implication that it is making an interpretation of this section by stating that “[i]n order to invade the confidentiality of Dr. Grey’s communications to, and diagnosis by, Dr. Rozansky, the insurer is required to make some prima facie proof that there may be something to support its speculation.” The majority then proceeds to state that Northwestern’s discovery motion was based upon a declaration which offered nothing more than speculation that the insured’s death might have been due to suicide, rather than to an accident. The majority opinion then points out that as a basis of Northwestern’s speculation that the patient’s death might have been due to suicide, reliance was placed upon the police officer’s investigation of the collision which contained a conclusion that from physical evidence, the deceased patient’s car had drifted off to the right, with a hypothesis that the doctor may have fallen asleep, and with a suggestion that the sheriff investigate the possibility of suicide.
The majority concludes: “That kind of speculation, based solely on the physical evidence of the collision, is not enough to justify an invasion of the doctor’s privacy.” This quotation leaves an inference that something more by Northwestern in its discoveiy motion would have been sufficient to justify an invasion of the patient’s confidential communications with his psychotherapist. Such an inference can be made only upon an assumption that the patient-litigant exception of Evidence Code section 1016 would be applicable to preclude petitioner from successfully asserting the psychotherapist-patient privilege.
It is my view that the holding of the majority ought to be predicated additionally upon the view that the patient-litigant exception provided by Evidence Code section 1016 does not apply in the factual situation presented in the instant case. It is my opinion that Northwestern, the *706insurer, is precluded from any discovery of the patient’s communications with Dr. Rozansky, his psychotherapist, and any diagnosis by Dr. Rozansky, because of the psychotherapist-patient privilege. Further, that Northwestern made no showing that the patient-litigant exception provided by Evidence Code section 1016, subdivision (c), is involved.
The patient-litigant exception to the psychotherapist-patient privilege is not involved because petitioner Jill Grey, the surviving widow of the deceased patient, has not tendered the issue of the mental or emotional condition of her deceased husband by filing a claim against Northwestern on the insurance policy, nor would she tender such issue by any subsequent lawsuit based upon a claim of accidental death. Petitioner’s claim is that the patient’s death resulted from accidental means. Although petitioner has the burden of proving the contention of accidental death, such a claim or lawsuit does not tender an issue by her as to her deceased husband’s mental or emotional condition. In asserting that the patient’s death was due to suicide as a result of his mental or emotional condition, it is Northwestern that has tendered the issue of the patient’s mental or emotional condition.
It seems clear that the patient-litigant exception to the psychotherapist-patient privilege, set forth in Evidence Code section 1016, must be given a narrow construction under mandate of the California Supreme Court. Thus, in In re Lifschutz (1970) 2 Cal.3d 415 [85 Cal.Rptr. 829, 467 P.2d 557, 44 A.L.R.3d 1], the California Supreme Court, relying upon the United States Supreme Court’s declaration that “[vjarious guarantees [of the Bill of Rights] create zones of privacy” (Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) 381 U.S. 479, 484 [14 L.Ed.2d 510, 514, 85 S.Ct. 1678]), asserted that “we believe that the confidentiality of the psychotherapeutic session falls within one such zone.” (In re Lifschutz, supra, 2 Cal.3d 415, at pp. 431-432.) And in Roberts v. Superior Court (1973) 9 Cal.3d 330, 337 [107 Cal.Rptr. 309, 508 P.2d 309], the Supreme Court, referring to In re Lifschutz, added that “because of the potential encroachment upon constitutionally protected rights of privacy by the compelled disclosure of confidential communications between the patient and his psychotherapist [citation], trial courts should carefully control compelled disclosures in this area. Thus, the psychotherapist-patient privilege is to be liberally construed in favor of the patient.” (Italics added.) If substance is to be given to the rule that “the psychotherapist-patient privilege is to be liberally construed in favor of the patient,” it necessarily follows that an *707exception to the privilege, such as the patient-litigant exception (Evid. Code, § 1016), must be given a correspondingly narrow construction. This is the teaching to be derived from Roberts and In re Lifschutz.