Court Opinion

ID: 9854611
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:09:59.025539+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:10.520327
License: Public Domain

Hale, J.
(concurring in the result)—I concur in the result of the majority opinion and in its holding that bringing an action for personal injuries does not constitute a waiver of the patient-physician privilege guaranteed to the plaintiff by statute. RCW 5.60.060 (4) states:
(4) A regular physician or surgeon shall not, without the consent of his patient, be examined in a civil action as to any information acquired in attending such patient, which was necessary to enable him to prescribe or act for the patient ....
I would not, however, go beyond the straightforward declaration of the statute. I would not anticipate conditions under which the statutory privilege will be deemed waived. Thus, I think our decision in Bond v. Independent Order of Foresters, 69 Wn.2d 879, 421 P.2d 351 (1966), which sustains the privilege and declares the rule without embellishment, supplies a ratio decidendi for the instant case. Accordingly, I think the majority opinion goes beyond the needs of the occasion in contemplating circumstances under which a waiver may be implied from a bringing of the action.