Court Opinion

ID: 9657637
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:32:43.608333+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:06:06.119439
License: Public Domain

McCALL, Justice
(dissenting).
The prime issue is whether or not the trial court erred in sustaining the demurrer. In general, the complaint charges that the defendant wrongfully disclosed to the plaintiff’s employer that the plaintiff suffered from a longstanding nervous condition with feelings of anxiety and insecurity. The verity of this medical opinion is not denied. The complaint does not charge that the defendant gave general circulation to this information as mentioned in Alexander v. Knight, 197 Pa.Super. 79, 177 A. 2d 142, cited in the above opinion, or that the defendant spoke it abroad (in wide cir*712culation). Nor does the complaint charge that the defendant frivolously disclosed or gossiped about the defendant’s health as the opinion intimates. We are not writing to such issues. Those circumstances alluded to in cited cases are not the averments in this case.
Counts I and II of the amended complaint attempt to charge more than a single cause of action for the recovery of damages against the defendant. In Count I, the plaintiff undertakes to aver a fiduciary duty, allegedly arising out of a doctor-patient relationship, which the plaintiff charges was breached. He also undertakes to aver, in the same count, a claim for recovery in his behalf for an alleged breach of the Hippocratic oath. In Count II, the plaintiff undertakes to aver a claim for damages for allegedly releasing medical information regarding the plaintiff to the latter’s employer. The plaintiff further attempts to aver, in the same count, an unlawful and wrongful invasion of the plaintiff’s privacy by reason of the release of the said information. As in Count I, the plaintiff also counts on an alleged breach of the Hippocratic oath.
Irrespective of whether the matters, if properly alleged, would state good causes of action, the fact remains that the plaintiff has misjoined in a single count separate and distinct causes of action which is not sanctioned under our system of pleading. Clikos v. Long, 231 Ala. 424, 165 So. 394; Vulcan Materials Company v. Grace, 274 Ala. 653, 658, 151 So.2d 229.
If the appellant in the case at bar did not argue in his brief that the misjoinders were permissible, it is not the duty of the appellee to argue that the misjoinders were erroneous. The court in Allen v. Axford, 285 Ala. 251, 263, 231 So.2d 122 said:
“Counsel for the appellee has performed his full duty when he files his brief replying to the points raised in appellant’s brief. If appellant’s brief is deficient in form, counsel for appellee is justified in relying on this deficiency in answering the contentions of the appellant.”
See also Metzger Brothers, Inc. v. Friedman, 288 Ala. 386, 400, 261 So.2d 398.
If a trial court generally sustains a demurrer to a complaint, without specifying on which grounds of demurrer it relies, an appellate court must sustain the trial court, if any one ground of demurrer be found properly sustainable. Brown v. W. R. M. A. Broadcasting Co., 286 Ala. 186, 238 So. 2d 540; Crommelin v. Capitol Broadcasting Co., 280 Ala. 472, 195 So.2d 524; McKinley v. Simmons, 274 Ala. 355, 148 So.2d 648. In Brown, supra, the plaintiff sued the defendant for slander, a ground akin to the allegations in the case at bar. The trial court sustained the defendant’s demurrer and entered a judgment of non-suit, and the plaintiff appealed. The court stated:
“ Where defendant assigns several grounds of demurrer * * *, and the plaintiff declines to plead further and appeals from the judgment sustaining the demurrer, this court on appeal from the judgment must sustain the trial court if any one ground of the demurrer was properly sustained.’ ”
The court agreed that it need only to consider whether a complaint is demurrable on any one of the grounds given in a document.
In Count III, the plaintiff relies on the breach of an alleged implied contract that the defendant would not divulge his medical findings about the plaintiff to the latter’s employer. If there is no legal duty not to make such a disclosure, then there can be no implied contract not to disclose the information. In my opinion there is no legal duty not to make the disclosure in this case.
Alabama is a common law state. Tit. 1, § 3, Code of Alabama, 1940; Hollis v. Crittenden, 251 Ala. 320, 37 So.2d 193. At common law no privilege between physician and patient existed as to communica*713tions between physician and patient. This is the rule in the absence of a contrary statute. 58 Am.Jur. Witnesses, § 401, notes 20 and 1 on page 232. While statutes have been enacted in most states making communications between physician and patient privileged from compulsory disclosure in courts of justice, Alabama has not enacted such a law. The common law therefore remains in effect. In 61 Am.Jur.2d Physicians, Surgeons, Etc., § 101, it is said that at common law neither the patient nor the physician has the privilege to refuse to disclose in court a communication of one to the other, nor does either have a privilege that the communication not be disclosed to a third person. Quarles v. Sutherland, 215 Tenn. 651, 389 S.W.2d 249, 20 A.L.R.2d 1103, citing 1 Morgan, Basic Problems of Evidence, Ch. 5 (1954); 8 Wigmore, Evidence § 2380 (3rd Ed. 1961). In Quarles, supra, a store physician, who treated the plaintiff, immediately after her fall in the store, sent a copy of his report of findings to her lawyer and to the store’s lawyer also, although he was requested not to send any medical report to anyone until notified by the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The Tennessee Supreme Court said:
“We have made a thorough search of the statutes of this State, and have found no statute which would alter the common law rule in this regard. While the arguments for and against making doctor-patient communications privileged are many, our Legislature has not seen fit to act on the matter and, therefore, we must apply the common law rule as set forth above. For a thorough treatment of the subject see Chafee, ‘Privileged Communication: Is Justice Served or Obstructed by Closing the Doctor’s Mouth on the Witness Stand?’ 52 Yale L.Jour. 607 (1943).
. “Petitioner cites T.C.A. sec. 63-618 concerning grounds for revocation of license, and T.C.A. sec. 63-619 defining unprofessional conduct for our consideration. We have carefully' studied these provisions and have concluded they are merely administrative provisions concerning the licensing of physicians. The standards set out therein are merely ethical in nature, and the nonadherence to these standards might constitute grounds for the revocation of the physician’s license. Our view is that the statutes cited concern only the power of the State of Tennessee to revoke or continue a physician’s license, and would have no application to the case sub judice. Henderson v. Knoxville, 157 Tenn. 477, 9 S. W.2d 697, 60 A.L.R. 652 (1928).
“We are aware that physicians and surgeons are required by the ethics of their profession to preserve the secrets of their patients which have been communicated to them or learned from symptoms or examination of other bodily conditions. However, under the common law, applicable in this case, this ethical requirement is not enforceable by law and, therefore, a demurrer to a cause of action wholly dependent upon an alleged ‘patient-physician privilege’ must be sustained.”
It is important to observe that the information allegedly revealed by the physician in the present complaint did not constitute gossiping about his patient’s health or a frivolous disclosure of information, as the court alluded to in Hague v. Williams, 37 N.J. 328, 181 A.2d 345.
In Hague v. Williams, supra, the court said:
“This is not to say that the patient enjoys an absolute right, but rather that he possesses a limited right against such disclosure, subject to exceptions prompted by the supervening interest of society. * * *>>
The court held that where the public interest or the private interest of a patient so demands, disclosure may be made to a person with a legitimate interest in the patient’s health, and, where in the course of examining an infant patient the physician *714became aware of a pathological heart condition, the physician was not barred from disclosing such condition to an insurer to whom the parents had applied for life insurance on the infant, the court holding that when the parents made a claim for insurance, they lost any rights to nondisclosure that they may have had. Hague, supra, p. 349. In my opinion the overriding competing interest and responsibility of an employer for the welfare of all of his employees, to the public who come to his establishment and who buy his merchandise, and to the furtherance of his own business venture, should entitle him to be free from the shackles of secrecy that would prevent a physician from disclosing to the employer critical information concerning the physical or mental condition of his employees.