Alexander v. Memphis Individual Practice Ass'n

• Citation: 870 S.W.2d 278
• Parties: Albert M. ALEXANDER, M.D., Plaintiff/Appellant, v. MEMPHIS INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ASSOCIATION, Defendant/Appellee.
• Decision Date: 08 November 1993
• Court: Supreme Court of Tennessee

Page 278

870 S.W.2d 278

Albert M. ALEXANDER, M.D., Plaintiff/Appellant, v. MEMPHIS INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE ASSOCIATION, Defendant/Appellee.

Supreme Court of Tennessee,

at Jackson.

Nov. 8, 1993.

Order Denying Rehearing Feb. 7, 1994.

David Wade, Richard M. Carter, John S. Golwen, Memphis, for appellant.

Leo Bearman, Jr., Charles G. Walker, R. Mark Glover, Memphis, for appellee.

OPINION

O'BRIEN, Justice.

The plaintiff/appellant, Albert M. Alexander, M.D., filed this action in Shelby Circuit Court against the Memphis Individual Practice Association alleging tortious interference with prospective economic advantage by first denying, then delaying, and finally accepting Dr. Alexander's membership application to the association. After extensive pre-trial discovery, the trial court granted summary judgment to the defendant. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court and, for the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of both lower courts.

The appellant presents two issues for review. First, whether the tort of intentional interference with prospective economic advantage is a recognized cause of action in Tennessee. Second, whether the defendant is immune from suit under the provisions of T.C.A. 63-6-219, which governs the actions of medical review committees. The defendant Association urges us not to consider the issue of tort of intentional inference with prospective economic advantage because neither the trial court nor the Court of Appeals dealt with the question. We also pretermit this issue because it is not dispositive of the case.

Dr. Alexander is a sole practitioner physician in Memphis specializing in obstetrics and gynecology with an emphasis on the treatment of infertility. Memphis Individual Practice Association (MIPA) is a not-for-profit corporation that contracts with Memphis area health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to provide primary health care services to subscribers of the HMOs. The HMOs pay for their subscriber's health care only when treated by a physician belonging to the MIPA.

In February of 1984, Dr. Alexander applied for membership to the MIPA. During the association's March 1984 meeting, Dr. Alexander's application was considered and denied. His name was then placed on a waiting list for future consideration. At the time, MIPA was comprised of several hundred physicians, including fifty-nine

OB/GYNs.

In response to written inquiry by Dr. Alexander, in April 1986, the MIPA membership committee reconsidered his application during its June 1986 meeting. Once again, the committee determined that there was no need for Dr. Alexander's services in the organization and denied the application. In July 1986, the MIPA notified Dr. Alexander that he was denied membership, but that his application would remain on file for future consideration.

In February of 1987, Alexander again wrote to MIPA inquiring about the status of his application. This time, during the April 1987 meeting, the membership committee approved the application. The committee's recommendation was placed on the April agenda of the MIPA board of director's meeting. However, because of a clerical error, Dr. Alexander's name was inadvertently left off the approval list sent to the board of directors by the membership committee. As a result of the error, the committee advised Dr. Alexander that he had been denied membership and his application remained on the waiting list. The clerical error was eventually discovered, and Dr. Alexander's application was approved by MIPA's board of directors in November of 1987.

Dr. Alexander alleges that MIPA delayed approval of his application as punishment for testifying as a plaintiff's expert in medical malpractice lawsuits in Kentucky between 1978 and 1988. The appellant bases his allegation upon statements made by Dr. Prentiss Turman, a member of MIPA's membership committee.

In his deposition, Dr. Turman stated that, as the senior OB/GYN member of the committee, his opinion was actively sought on whether Dr. Alexander's application should be recommended for approval.

While Dr. Turman abstained from voting whenever Dr. Alexander's application was being considered, he did state in deposition that he had offered his opinion as to the appellant's qualifications and the lack of MIPA's need for another OB/GYN. During deposition, Dr. Turman stated:

... my opinion of Albert, and he knows this, was that over the years I've known him I thought he was a little bit of a maverick and would be a little hard to bridle as far as cost containment, cost efficiency was concerned which we were pretty heavy in at the time, that he had a little bit of anti-establishment or anti-systems personality about him and that he had begun to, according to talk that almost everyone had heard, to testify for hire for plaintiffs in medical malpractice suits.

Those were--that was my speech each...