Court Opinion

ID: 9616113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:43:39.322386+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:36.993024
License: Public Domain

*883Finley, J.
(dissenting) — I dissent. Readers of the majority opinion may infer that the waiver found in Randa v. Bear, 50 Wn.2d 415, 312 P.2d 640 (1957), was contractually based. Such an inference is incorrect. The court specifically stated in Randa (p. 422) that: “[T]he privilege was waived by neither testimony nor contract; the waiver, if any, was implicit in the nature of the action brought by respondent in her cross-complaint.”
However, even conceding that the holding in Randa was limited to or based upon waiver or consent in those cases involving an action instituted on a medical service contract, I believe that the policy underlying Randa and given effect therein sustains the order before us. The policy of Randa is the same as the policy of the federal rules of civil procedure. The theory and basic purpose of the federal rules is to eliminate, or at least minimize insofar as possible, the game or sporting theory of justice in the trial of lawsuits, and to substitute a search for truth as the ultimate purpose of courtroom proceedings. In the instant matter, plaintiff, in her answer to written interrogatories, revealed two possibly related earlier claims against the Seattle Transit System for arm injuries. Denying the motion to allow deposing of the treating physician permits the plaintiff to conceal her case before trial, and may very well permit and implement the sporting theory of justice in the trial of this lawsuit.
The majority opinion states that whether or not the filing of a lawsuit for personal injuries constitutes a waiver of the physician-patient privilege is strictly a legislative question. The legislature, however, has already spoken on the matter. The statute creating the physician-patient privilege, RCW 5.60.060(4), states that a physician shall not be examined in a civil action “without the consent of his patient.” (Italics mine.) Although the language of the statute is in the books for all to see, the statute does not define “consent”; the word’s interpretation and application requires judicial evaluation. In Randa, this court held that the filing of an action on a medical service contract constituted consent or waiver of the physician-patient privilege. I am persuaded that determining what constitutes “consent” of the patient *884remains in the instant case, as it was in Randa, a proper judicial function.
In Randa, supra, this court (pp. 422-23) quoted the following passage with approval:
“[T]he bringing of an action in which an essential part of the issue is the existence of physical ailment should be a waiver of the privilege for all communications concerning that ailment. The whole reason for the privilege is the patient’s supposed unwillingness that the ailment should be disclosed to the world at large; hence the bringing of a suit in which the very declaration, and much more the proof, discloses the ailment to the world at large, is of itself an indication that the supposed repug-nancy to disclosure does not exist.” 8 Wigmore on Evidence (3d ed.) 832, § 2389(1).
I would adhere to the policy and reasoning of Randa and hold that the plaintiff waived her privilege as to all communications concerning the injuries in issue by instituting the present suit. It seems clear to me that, once it has been determined that there has been a waiver, it must logically be held to be applicable and effective as to pretrial procedures. See Mariner v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 202 F. Supp. 430 (N.D. Ohio 1962), and Awtry v. United States, 27 F.R.D. 399 (S.D.N.Y. 1961).
Kime v. Niemann, 64 Wn.2d 394, 391 P.2d. 955 (1964), holds nothing to the contrary. In Kime, a per curiam departmental decision, the issue before us now was not reached because of certain other defects in the pretrial order involved there. The opinion in Kime contains the following statements (pp. 397-98):
Whether a blanket ruling should be made that the filing of a complaint for personal injuries (and before any effort is made to prosecute the action) constitutes a waiver of the doctor-patient privilege — not only with respect to the plaintiff’s claimed injuries, but as to his general physical condition — is yet to be determined. . . .
We will not, on this record, pass on the question of when and under what circumstances a patient will be deemed to have waived his privilege. . . . (Italics mine.)
*885In the recent and well-reasoned decision of Mathis v. Hilderbrand, 416 P.2d 8 (Alaska 1966), the Supreme Court of Alaska set aside an order denying a motion to require the plaintiff’s physician to testify at a pretrial deposition in a personal injury action. The Alaska physician-patient privilege, created by Alaska Rule of Civil Procedure 43 (h) (4), is very similar to ours. The Alaska court emphasized that the medical testimony is needed in order to ascertain the truth, and that the essential purpose of concealment is for tactical maneuvering which may result in injustice. After a careful review of the authorities, the Alaska court stated its conclusions as follows (p.10) :
We accordingly hold that the plaintiffs in this personal injury action waived the physician-patient privilege by the commencement of the action to the extent that attending physicians may be required to testify on pretrial deposition with respect to the injuries sued upon.
I would reach the same conclusion in the instant matter.
The order of the trial court in this case entitled the defendants to depose the two treating physicians named in the complaint “so far as their testimony reasonably relates to the injuries claimed in this suit.” This limitation seems a sufficient control against abuse, just as the requirement under Rule of Pleading, Practice, and Procedure 35 that the physical or mental condition of a party must be “in controversy” before an examination is ordered constitutes a sufficient check on that procedural device. And certainly, ordering an actual examination, as is done under Rule 35, has the potential of being a greater invasion of privacy than ordering that information previously disclosed to physicians be revealed. The order before us is so limited as not to be an invitation for a defendant to conduct a fishing expedition into possibly embarrassing personal matters. The requirement, that the information sought must reasonably relate to the injuries alleged, allows legitimate investigation while preventing investigation purely for the purpose of harassment. See, also, Rules of Pleading, Practice, and Procedure 30(d) and 31 (d) which provide for the *886termination or limiting of depositions taken in bad faith or to annoy, embarrass, or oppress a deponent or party.
The order before us clearly seems to me to be consistent with protecting the justifiable interests of the plaintiff, with the progressive policy of our rules of procedure, and with our traditional concept of litigation as a truth-finding process.
I would affirm the order of the trial court.
Donworth, Weaver, and Hamilton, JJ., concur with Finley, J.
April 3,1967. Petition for rehearing denied.