Court Opinion

ID: 9717985
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:14:02.467935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:56.579430
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE McMORROW, dissenting: These two appeals involve medical malpractice cases that have been consolidated in this court. Both appeals challenge the propriety of trial court rulings with respect to defense motions to engage in pretrial ex parte interviews of the plaintiffs’ treating physicians. The parties undertook interlocutory appeals from the trial court rulings. The majority dismisses the appeals for lack of appellate jurisdiction. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s disposition of these appeals on jurisdictional grounds. ANALYSIS I disagree with the majority’s decision to dismiss the instant appeals for lack of jurisdiction, without first providing the parties an opportunity to argue this significant and dispositive issue to the court. The arguments of the parties to this appeal are dedicated wholly and exclusively to the substantive issues involving the Petrillo doctrine (see Petrillo v. Syntex Laboratories, Inc. (1986), 148 Ill. App. 3d 581) that have been raised in this appeal. The parties did not argue the question of appellate jurisdiction before this court. This court could have, and should have, entered an order directing the parties to brief the issue of appellate jurisdiction. The majority’s failure to do so is inequitable to the litigants in the present case. I also cannot concur in the majority’s sua sponte declaration regarding the constitutionality of section 10(b) of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act (740 ILCS 110/10(b) (West 1992)). The majority concludes that, to the extent section 10(b) permits appeals from less than final judgments in civil cases, section 10(b) is unconstitutional as an improper infringement on this court’s power to determine the scope of interlocutory appeals from nonfinal judgments of the trial court. This argument was not raised by the parties to this appeal, and the majority needlessly offers dicta on the constitutionality issue. It is well established that "this court has long held that constitutional questions will not be considered if the cause can be determined on other grounds.” (People ex rel. Waller v. 1990 Ford Bronco (1994), 158 Ill. 2d 460, 464, citing Exchange National Bank v. Lawndale National Bank (1968), 41 Ill. 2d 316, 321.) Because the majority concludes that appellate jurisdiction is lacking under Rule 307, review of the constitutionality of the statute in this case is not required in order to dispose of the instant appeals. In addition, although I agree with the majority’s recognition that an appeal from an order of contempt permits review of the underlying discovery order, I disagree with the majority’s reasoning that Dreyer’s appeal in this case is not in reality the appeal of its counsel, Cunningham, whom the trial court held in contempt of court. Although this court has observed that it is the attorney-contemnor who should appeal from a contempt order (see, e.g., People v. Shukovsky (1988), 128 Ill. 2d 210, 219-20), we have further acknowledged that the failure to formally name the attorney-contemnor in the notice of appeal does not deprive this court of jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. (Waste Management, Inc. v. International Surplus Lines Insurance Co. (1991), 144 Ill. 2d 178, 188-89.) Our remarks in Waste Management are equally applicable to the present cause and bear repeating: "It is our preference that cases presented for our review be resolved on the merits, and to that end, notice requirements are given a liberal construction [citation]. Mere technical defects in form, as opposed to substance, are deemed not fatal. [Citation.]” (Waste Management, 144 Ill. 2d at 188-89.) The majority fails to recognize this precedent. Nevertheless, Waste Management dictates the inescapable conclusion that the majority is particularly remiss to refuse to address the arguments of Dreyer and Cunningham. This error is compounded by the majority’s refusal to grant Dreyer’s motion to amend its notice of appeal in order to formally name its attorney, Cunningham, as an appealing party. Were the majority to allow this motion to amend, in order to remedy this purely technical defect, the majority would have no sound basis on which to justify its refusal to address the Petrillo issues raised in the present appeals. The majority’s disposition is particularly disturbing in the instant cause because of its impact on the interests of the litigants. By severely limiting the opportunities for interlocutory appellate review of a trial court’s Petrillo ruling, the majority disregards the potentially irreparable harm that may occur to a party whose treating physician has engaged in ex parte communications with opposing counsel. The majority wholly ignores that the danger of ex parte communication may include the prospect that the treating physiclan will disclose material that should not have been divulged under any circumstances. The plaintiffs in the instant appeals argue that a trial court’s erroneous allowance of defense requests to engage in ex parte communications with the plaintiffs’ treating physicians threatens the plaintiffs’ significant and fundamental physician-patient privileges. Plaintiffs contend that the harm from a wrongful infringement on the plaintiff’s privileges as a patient cannot be effectively remedied after trial and final judgment. As one commentator has observed, "Confidentiality, once breached, cannot be restored.” (Corboy, Ex Parte Contacts Between Plaintiff’s Physician and Defense Attorneys: Protecting the Patient-Litigant’s Right to A Fair Trial, 21 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 1001, 1011 (1990).) The interests of the defendants, who seek ex parte communication in the present cases, are equally significant. An erroneous ruling from the trial court, which improperly bars ex parte communication, could substantially interfere with the defendant’s ability to develop and present its case at trial. These concerns deserve a reviewing court’s immediate attention, notwithstanding the majority’s perception of a lack of appellate jurisdiction. I note that in other jurisdictions, courts have created and recognized an exception to the general rule of nonreviewability of interlocutory orders of the trial court. Under this exception, the reviewing court may consider an interlocutory appeal from a nonfinal order of the trial court, where the trial court’s ruling may result in an erroneous invasion of an important right or privilege, and where the damage from such an erroneous invasion cannot be effectively remedied if the court awaits final judgment to undertake review. See, e.g., Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp. (1988), 485 U.S. 271, 276, 99 L. Ed. 2d 296, 305, 108 S. Ct. 1133, 1136-37, quoting Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay (1978), 437 U.S. 463, 468, 57 L. Ed. 2d 351, 357-58, 98 S. Ct. 2454, 2458 (nonfinal order may be subject to immediate interlocutory review, where the order " 'conclusively determinéis] the disputed question,’ ” " 'resolvéis] an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action,’ ” and is " 'effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment’ ”); Smith v. BIC Corp. (3d Cir. 1989), 869 F.2d 194 (allowing interlocutory appeal from protective order that barred disclosure of alleged trade secret); Hollis v. Finger (1990), 69 Ohio App. 3d 286, 590 N.E.2d 784 (allowing interlocutory appeal from order compelling deposition of treating physician); Hutchison v. Luddy (1992), 414 Pa. Super. 138, 606 A.2d 905 (allowing interlocutory appeal from order regarding production of church documents); see generally Annot., Appealability of discovery order as "final decision’’ under 28 USCS § 1291, 36 A.L.R. Fed. 763 (1978); Annot., Appealability of order pertaining to pretrial examination, discovery, interrogatories, production of books and papers, or the like, 37 A.L.R.2d 586 (1954). Although our appellate court has acknowledged that other jurisdictions have adopted this rule allowing for interlocutory appeals from certain significant, nonfinal rulings of the trial court, and although the appellate court has advocated adoption of the rule in this State, our appellate court has believed itself barred from applying the rule because of its perceived inconsistency with precedent of this court. (See, e.g., Matsunaga v. Worrell (1988), 169 Ill. App. 3d 681, 682; National Wrecking Co. v. Midwest Terminal Corp. (1987), 164 Ill. App. 3d 621, 623-25; Chicago Title & Trust Co. v. Guaranty Bank & Trust Co. (1978), 59 Ill. App. 3d 362, 363-65.) When the majority filed its opinion in this cause, it did not provide the parties an opportunity to brief and argue the question of appellate jurisdiction in the instant appeals. As a result, the majority failed to consider the adoption of an exception which would allow interlocutory appeals from significant nonfinal discovery rulings and failed to provide the occasion to consider the applicability of the cited precedent from other jurisdictions to the cases presently before this court. The parties’ petitions for rehearing raise these issues, but the majority has denied the petitions and refuses to address their arguments. I believe this is in error, and that the petitions for rehearing should be allowed. The arguments are significant and deserve scrutiny by this court in the present appeals. In my opinion, the majority is in error to reach its conclusion regarding appellate jurisdiction without considering the wisdom of this foreign precedent to the instant cause. Although the majority finds no appellate jurisdiction in the present cases, one potential avenue for appellate review under Illinois law may remain for other cases where the parties seek interlocutory review of a trial court’s Petrillo ruling. Principles of law and equity might permit a trial court to enter an order finding that, pursuant to Rule 308, the court’s Petrillo ruling "involves a question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that an immediate appeal from the order may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation.” (134 Ill. 2d R. 308(a).) Unfortunately, at the time that the majority’s opinion was originally filed, the litigants were provided no opportunity to seek such permissive interlocutory appeal in the instant cases. After the filing of the majority opinion, the appellants filed petitions for rehearing. In conjunction with these petitions, the parties filed a motion seeking interlocutory appeal under Supreme Court Rule 308. This motion is based on the trial court’s entry of an order certifying the parties’ Petrillo arguments for interlocutory, Rule 308 review. However, the majority has denied the motion and refuses to grant interlocutory appeal under Rule 308. In my view, such refusal is unwise and unsound, because it performs a gross disservice to the litigants and the trial court. The parties’ Petrillo arguments have been fully briefed and litigated, and there is no defensible reason for the majority’s bald refusal to address them. As a result of the majority’s rulings, parties to a lawsuit appear to be barred from obtaining any interlocutory appellate review of all trial court Petrillo rulings, without regard to the extent to which an erroneous ruling of the trial court may cause irreparable damage to the interest of the litigants and violate fundamental privilege principles. In view of the majority’s refusal to grant the parties’ Rule 308 request for interlocutory review, it is entirely unclear whether Rule 308 remains a viable avenue for interlocutory appellate review of a trial court’s Petrillo order. In my opinion, the majority’s disposition is unsettling and inequitable. The interests of the plaintiffs and the defendants, with respect to a trial court’s Petrillo ruling, are too significant to the parties, and to the progress of the litigation, to delay appellate review until final judgment. The trial bar needs and deserves guidance on the important and recurring issues presented in these appeals. In my view, such issues merit interlocutory, appellate scrutiny. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.