Court Opinion

ID: 9729531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:41:24.824789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:59.327387
License: Public Domain

PIVARNIK, Justice,
concurring in result.
While I agree with the result reached by the majority, I write separately due to the undue emphasis the majority places on who the petitioning party is and who ultimately gains custody of a child in a dissolution proceeding. In any dissolution proceeding involving determinations to be made by the trial court regarding the custody of minor children, the fitness of each parent to care for the child is at issue. It does not matter who petitions for dissolution of the marriage or who is initially awarded custody; the paramount interest is that of the child. No finding need be made by the trial court that one party or the other waived his or her physician-patient privilege by putting their mental or physical condition at issue where the custody of a minor child is being considered.
Moreover, Canfield v. Sandock, (1990), Ind., 563 N.E.2d 526 is inapplicable to the instant case. In Canfield, a majority of this Court vacated an opinion of the Court of Appeals which reversed the trial court’s imposition of fees against an attorney who sought certain medical records relative to plaintiff’s injuries arising out of an automobile-pedestrian accident. This author dissented from the majority’s granting transfer and vacating the Court of Appeals’ opinion in Canfield. I feel the majority’s finding in Canfield will confuse and confound trial judges and lawyers in this State regarding the discovery of medical records in negligence actions where the physical condition of the parties is in issue. I remain astounded that this Court would affirm the trial court in sanctioning a lawyer in seeking to discover relevant medical information on behalf of his client. However, notwithstanding my dissent, Canfield was a negligence action where the nature and extent of plaintiff’s injuries were in issue. It is both legally and factually distinguishable from the case at bar, where it is incumbent upon the trial court to make a determination as to the fitness of each parent to raise a child.
For these reasons, I concur in result only.
GIVAN, J., concurs.