Court Opinion

ID: 9577450
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:35:05.492832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:37.803986
License: Public Domain

RABINOWITZ, Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the court’s holdings as to the extent the physician-patient evidentiary privilege is waived as a result of the patient filing a claim for relief based on personal injuries. My disagreement with the court is centered on the dispositional aspect of the opinion for, in my view, Judge Carlson’s order in Vervick should be reversed since it embodies none of the discovery limitations which the court has articulated in today’s opinion. The controlling criteria which I find absent in Judge Carlson’s order are formulated by the court in the following manner:
Further, we hold that the filing of a personal injury action waives the physician-patient privilege as to all information concerning the health and medical history relevant to the matters which the plaintiff has put in issue. The scope of the waiver extends to all matters pertinent to the plaintiff’s claim, including but not limited to those matters the relevancy of which is based on an historical or causal connection, (footnote omitted)
Given the absence of any hint of these criteria in Judge Carlson’s order in Vervick, I conclude that the appropriate disposition is to reverse and remand with directions to vacate the order and to enter an order in conformity with the court’s opinion in this matter.
On the other hand, I am of the view that Judge Lewis’ order in the Drobny case should be modified and, as modified, affirmed. The Drobny waiver-discovery order appears to be in conformity with the waiver criteria of this court’s opinion, if modified, to read as limiting discovery to those matters which have an “historical or causal connection” to the bodily injuries claimed of by Drobny which were received on or about January 29, 1976.