Davis v. West Community Hosp.
| Decision Date | 21 March 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-1536,83-1536 |
| Citation | 755 F.2d 455 |
| Parties | Dr. Emsley A. DAVIS, Plaintiff-Appellee Cross-Appellant, v. WEST COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, Dr. Robert W. Shirey, and Dr. William G. Manax, Defendants-Appellants Cross-Appellees, and Harvey Kelly, B.J. Neely and Sue Pescaia, Defendants Cross-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
R. Brent Cooper, Michael W. Huddleston, Dallas, Tex., for Manax.
W.V. Dunnam, Jr., Waco, Tex., for West Comm. Hosp.
Bailey & Williams, Kevin J. Keith, Dallas, Tex., for Shirey.
LaNelle L. McNamara, Waco, Tex., for Davis.
Joe Milner, Peter R. Meeker, Austin, Tex., for Neely, Kelly and Pescaia.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Before RUBIN, TATE, and HILL, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal and cross-appeal on an action initiated by Dr. Emsley A. Davis against West Community Hospital, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the hospital (Harvey Kelly), the Administrator of the hospital (B.J. Neely), the Chief of Staff (Dr. Robert W. Shirey), the Chief of Surgery (Dr. William G. Manax) and other persons not involved in this appeal after the permanent suspension of Dr. Davis' staff privileges at the hospital. The action was brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and alleged a deprivation of Dr. Davis' constitutional rights; the complaint also asserted pendent state law claims for libel and tortious interference with business relationships of Dr. Davis. On this appeal the defendants contest the district court's judgment for Dr. Davis following a jury trial on claims for violation of his first amendment rights and procedural due process rights and for libel. Dr. Davis contests the judgment for the defendants on his claim for tortious interference with business relationships and for the violation of his equal protection rights. Further issues on appeal are the appropriateness of joint and several liability of the defendants, the immunity of the hospital, and the proper amount of attorneys' fees under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988.
On this appeal we hold as follows. The judgment for Dr. Davis for actual damages in the amount of $10,000 and reinstatement of staff privileges for the violation of procedural due process is affirmed; the judgment for the defendants on the claim of tortious interference with business relationships is also affirmed. The judgment for Dr. Davis on the first amendment claim is reversed as a matter of law based on our ruling that Dr. Davis' letters to the hospital were not protected speech; the judgment for Dr. Davis on the libel claim is reversed based on our interpretation of the jury's inconsistent answers to interrogatories such that the finding of the truth of the libel provided a complete defense as a matter of law. We reverse the judgment for the defendants on the equal protection claim on the ground that the jury's finding of constitutional violation even without a finding of actual damages entitled Dr. Davis to nominal damages of $1 and remand for entry of judgment for Dr. Davis in that amount.
As to the apportionment of damages among the defendants, we conclude that the district court erred in finding Drs. Manax and Shirey and the hospital jointly and severally liable. We reverse the award of punitive damages against the hospital as a municipal entity under the rule expressed in City of Newport v. Facts Concerts, Inc., 453 U.S. 247, 271, 101 S.Ct. 2748, 2762, 69 L.Ed.2d 616 (1981). On the procedural due process claim, we remand for the entry of judgment against the hospital for actual damages in the amount of $10,000. On the equal protection claim, we remand for the entry of judgment jointly and severally against Drs. Manax and Shirey and chairman Kelly and administrator Neely for nominal damages in the amount of $1.
Finally, we vacate the award of attorneys' fees and remand for a reconsideration by the district court of the amount of attorneys' fees to be awarded to Dr. Davis under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 and the rule of Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983), concerning partially prevailing plaintiffs.
Dr. Emsley A. Davis is a general surgeon who had staff privileges at the West Community Hospital in West, Texas. In 1981, Dr. Davis wrote several letters to hospital supervisors concerning disputes with other hospital personnel, alleged ineffective patient treatment by Dr. Manax, complaints against activities of hospital board members and more trivial matters such as the administrator Neely giving Dr. Manax the parking space Dr. Davis had been using. At approximately the same time, Dr. Davis' patient records were under investigation.
On June 22, 1981, a letter from Dr. Manax as Chief of Surgery and Dr. Shirey as Chief of Staff to Dr. Davis was read at a staff meeting. This letter summarily suspended Dr. Davis' staff privileges. The letter summarized the records of 18 of Dr. Davis' patients who had died or developed serious complications after surgery. It also referred to Dr. Davis' correspondence with hospital officials as follows:
Slanderous and untrue statements directed formally against physicians and executives of this hospital, such statements being in grievous error; virtual threats in your recent letters as to what course you will pursue if your demands and requests are not carried out.
Four days later Dr. Davis' staff privileges were reinstated by the hospital. Thereafter, numerous meetings were held by the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the hospital to discuss Dr. Davis' permanent suspension. A team of outside surgeons gave a negative evaluation of the 18 patient records described in the June 22 summary suspension letter as compared to selected records of other surgeons at the hospital. Dr. Davis presented evidence to a specially appointed four member hearing panel composed of Dr. Teresa Manax (the wife of Dr. Manax) and three laypersons and to a Joint Conference Committee of the Board of Directors. Finally, in January 1982, the Board of Directors permanently suspended Dr. Davis' staff privileges at the hospital.
Dr. Davis then filed his lawsuit against the hospital and various members of its staff. A jury answered special interrogatories in Dr. Davis' favor on the following claims: (1) first amendment violation; (2) equal protection violation; (3) procedural due process violation; (4) substantive due process violation; (5) libel; and (6) tortious interference with business relationships. The jury awarded actual and punitive damages on all claims with the following exceptions: no actual or punitive damages for the violation of equal protection, and only punitive damages for the violation of substantive due process.
The district court entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict as follows: it disallowed the claim for tortious interference with business relationships finding no evidence of the element of malice and no evidence of actual damage (since Dr. Davis' income increased in the year of his summary suspension); and it set aside the award of punitive damages for the violation of substantive due process, reasoning that without actual damages, evidence of either aggravating circumstances or malicious intent was necessary but not present. The court also entered judgment for $60,000 in damages against the defendants Drs. Manax and Shirey and West Community Hospital jointly and severally. The award comprised $10,000 actual and $10,000 punitive damages each for the violations of first amendment rights, procedural due process rights, and libel. The district court also awarded attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 in the amount submitted for actual time and expenses. Finally, the court ordered reinstatement of Dr. Davis' staff privileges.
The jury determined that the initial summary suspension of Dr. Davis by Drs. Manax and Shirey was a retaliatory action in violation of his first amendment rights. We conclude, however, that as a matter of law Dr. Davis' speech was not protected by the First Amendment. Therefore, we do not reach the issue raised by the defendants that the district court erred in failing to submit a special interrogatory on the question of whether Dr. Davis would have been suspended regardless of the letters that he wrote. See Mt. Healthy City School District v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 287, 97 S.Ct. 568, 576, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977); Truly v. Madison General Hospital, 673 F.2d 763, 767 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 909, 103 S.Ct. 214, 74 L.Ed.2d 170 (1982).
The speech in question is found in several letters written by Dr. Davis to his superiors at the hospital. On March 12, 1981, Dr. Davis wrote Dr. Shirey complaining about a letter he had received from a nurse complaining about a note that he had left her about checking on a patient. In his letter, Dr. Davis requested an apology. On March 31, Dr. Davis wrote hospital administrator Neely complaining about the work of an anesthetist and requesting verification or a written retraction of the anesthetist's comments about Dr. Davis having made bad judgment calls. On June 2, Dr. Davis wrote the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the hospital criticizing Dr. Manax' patient care and alleging that Dr. Manax' ineffectiveness and inefficiency were being condoned by Dr. Shirey and Neely. Dr. Davis requested a review of Dr. Manax' cases. One day later, on June 3, he wrote the President of the hospital's Board of Directors to complain about Neely. He listed six specific incidents, five of which were personal (including a complaint that Neely had given a parking space that Dr. Davis had been using to Dr. Manax). The sixth was another complaint that Neely was overlooking the improper conduct of Dr. Manax in treating patients. In a June 15 letter to the President of the Board of Directors, Dr. Davis complained about the lack of response to the June 2 and 3...
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