Court Opinion

ID: 9510008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:51:27.492235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:55.639038
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE LEAPHART,
specially concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the Court, however, I would have only answered the question posed by the appellant Webb. Webb phrased the issue on appeal as follows:
“Does a physician who undertakes to advise a patient about her condition following an independent medical examination have an obligation to exercise reasonable care in doing so?”
In responding to the issue framed by Webb, I would hold that an IME doctor who undertakes to advise a patient about her condition following an independent medical examination has an obligation to exercise reasonable care in so advising her.
Unlike the majority, I would not have addressed the broader questions of whether an IME doctor who examines a person must exercise ordinary care to discover mental or physical conditions and to take reasonable steps to communicate the presence of such conditions to the examinee. Those are questions which were not posed by the appellant and are outside the scope of the facts of this appeal. While I do not necessarily disagree with the Court’s analysis of those issues, they are issues for another day, another appeal.
JUSTICE GRAY joins in the foregoing special concurrence.