Court Opinion

ID: 9663236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:32:50.281679+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:46.926366
License: Public Domain

Krivosha, C.J.,
dissenting.
I find that I must respectfully dissent from the majority in this case. While I do not take issue with the general propositions of law advanced by the majority, I believe that their application to the instant case requires us to reach a contrary decision. The majority has correctly noted that the questions to be determined are whether the findings of the board are supported by substantial evidence. I take this to mean more than justly a preponderance of the evidence.
My reading of the record leads me to believe that the evidence is not substantial. At best, we have the testimony of employees who admittedly are opposed to the position taken by Dr. Devine, and who admittedly desire to present a particular position. When one examines their testimony, which admittedly is hearsay, one cannot, in my view, reach a conclusion that the evidence is substantial so as to support the state’s position.
While the state maintains that Dr. Devine’s behavior was having a negative effect on staff relations and patients, the testimony does not bear out that contention. The only evidence presented was *118that of staff who reported in a general fashion what they perceived some of the patients were saying. No patient testified in support of the state’s position. It would appear that the staff was more confused by what Dr. Devine was saying than were the patients. There is simply no substantial evidence in the record that the patients’ condition of “confusion” was attributable to Dr. Devine’s comments on alcoholism. At best, the evidence supports a view that some patients made inquiry as to which of the two views should be accepted.
The parties all concede that Dr. Devine’s statements were not false in that there is an honest difference of opinion as to whether alcoholism is a disease, and an honest difference of opinion as to the effect of an AA program on every patient. To suggest that by saying he did not believe that alcoholism was a disease or that it was effective on all people he thereby created confusion which adversely affected the patients’ treatment is simply unsupported in the record by any substantial evidence. There is no evidence that Dr. Devine’s statements adversely affected the treatment of any patient or prevented a patient from obtaining his desired level of recovery, nor is there any indication that the statements made caused any patient to regress in his treatment.
If, indeed, the position of the department was as important as the department now maintains it was, one would think that an investigation concerning Dr. Devine’s views would have been made before hiring him.
I wholeheartedly agree with the majority that the problem in this case is to arrive at a balance between the interests of the employee as a citizen in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the state as an employer in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees. My disagreement with the majority *119is that I believe the balance tips in favor of the employee. To suggest, as the majority does now, that in every health care facility all of the employees must follow the “party line,” absent any substantial evidence that the party line is correct or required, is to impose upon employees in the health care field requirements which I believe the law does not permit. I would have balanced the test in favor of Dr. Devine.