Holmes v. E. Cooper Cmty. Hosp., Inc.
| Decision Date | 26 March 2014 |
| Docket Number | Opinion No. 27370,Appellate Case No. 2012-209666,Appellate Case No. 2011-198092 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | Dr. Cynthia Holmes, M.D., Appellant, v. East Cooper Community Hospital, Inc., and Tenet HealthSystem Medical, Inc., Respondents. |
Appeal From Charleston County
Kristi Lea Harrington, Circuit Court Judge
AFFIRMED
Chalmers Carey Johnson, of Tacoma, Washington, for Appellant.
Erskine Douglas Pratt-Thomas, Lindsay Kathryn Smith-Yancey, and Daniel Simmons McQueeney, Jr., all of Pratt-Thomas Walker, PA, of Charleston, for Respondents.CHIEF JUSTICE TOAL: In this consolidated appeal, Dr. Cynthia Holmes, M.D. (Appellant) asks this Court to reverse the circuit court's decisions granting summary judgment in favor of East Cooper Community Hospital, Incorporated, and Tenet HealthSystem Medical, Incorporated (collectively, Respondents), and sanctioning her pursuant to the South Carolina Frivolous Civil Proceedings Sanctions Act, section 15-36-10 of the South Carolina Code (the FCPSA). We affirm the circuit court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Respondents and the award of sanctions against Appellant.
FACTS/PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Respondent East Cooper Community Hospital, Incorporated, is a subsidiary of Respondent Tenet HealthSystem Medical, Incorporated, and owns, operates and does business as East Cooper Medical Center (the Hospital), a private hospital in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Appellant is a doctor, who currently practices ophthalmology in Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, and was previously a member of the consulting medical staff of the Hospital.1 During the relevant time period, Appellant was a member of the Hospital's medical consulting staff, appointed in two-year increments. In October 2006, Appellant submitted a reappointment application seeking advancement in medical staff category and clinical privileges to perform surgery on the eye. The Hospital's credentialing committee found Appellant unqualified for the level of privileges she requested. Appellant received administrative review of this decision, and was ultimately reappointed as consulting medical staff for another two-year term. In October 2008, Appellant submitted another reappointment application requesting advancement. This time, the Hospital determined that Appellant's application was incomplete and requested she voluntarily resign from the medical staff without appellate rights under the medical staff bylaws. The current appeal stems from these privileging decisions.
By way of background, this case represents the fourth lawsuit filed by Appellant against Respondents regarding credentialing decisions.2 In each case,Appellant has alleged breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing arising out of Respondents' alleged mishandling of Appellant's medical staff privileging applications. Appellant filed her first lawsuit against Respondents in federal court in 1999, alleging violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1, et seq. (2004), and pendant state law claims, including inter alia, claims for wrongful termination of hospital privileges, breach of contract, breach of contract accompanied by a fraudulent act, civil conspiracy, and unfair trade practices. That lawsuit ended when the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Respondents on the federal claim, and dismissed the remaining state law claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3) ().3
On May 16, 2000, Appellant again challenged the Hospital's credentialing decisions, this time in circuit court. On January 20, 2003, the parties executed a settlement agreement in the second lawsuit (the Settlement Agreement). The Settlement Agreement provided, in part, that Appellant be reappointed to the consulting medical staff position from 2002 until 2004 with "the right to apply for a change in status in accordance with the Bylaws."
In 2005, Appellant filed a third lawsuit against Respondents alleging, inter alia, that Respondents breached the Settlement Agreement and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in reviewing Appellant's applications for medical staff privileges in 2002 and 2004. More specifically, Appellant alleged that she and Respondents were parties to a contractual agreement "the terms of which are set forth in the Medical Staff Bylaws, Rules and Regulations, and related documents."
The circuit court ultimately granted summary judgment in favor of Respondents in the 2005 lawsuit on May 23, 2007. In addressing the allegations relating to Appellant's 2004 application, Circuit Court Judge R. Markley Dennis, Jr., stated, in pertinent part:
The [Appellant's] Amended Complaint seeks judicial determination ofwhether the decisions regarding her credentialing and privileges at East Cooper Hospital were reasonable and in compliance with the Hospital's Bylaws. Specifically, she requests the Court to review whether the failure to process and consider her application for associate status and surgical privileges, her reappointment to the consulting staff, and the denial of an administrative hearing were reasonable decisions made in accordance with the Bylaws. The [Appellant's] claims all arise out of the peer review process at [the Hospital] and, as such, are not subject to judicial review. The Court does not have jurisdiction to determine these issues and [Appellant] has presented no evidence or reason to persuade the Court to depart from the long-standing principle that such actions are not subject to judicial review.
Judge Dennis explained further:
[Appellant] argues that the Court does have jurisdiction over this matter based on Lee v. Chesterfield General Hospital, 289 S.C. 6, 344 S.E.2d 379 (Ct. App. 1986). The Court declines to adopt [Appellant's] interpretation of the Lee decision as applicable to the matter herein. In Lee the Court confirmed the decision reached in Gowen [sic]4 but found subject matter jurisdiction where [Appellant] did not seek to conduct a judicial review of internal hospital rules, but claimed that the Bylaws were imposed in furtherance of a conspiracy, the purpose of which was to injure [Appellant]. Lee[, 289 S.C.] at 10. Here [Appellant] asks the Court to review the basis for the credentialing decisions and substitute its judgment for the Hospital and its review committees by determining that the credentialing decisions were made inappropriately. This is precisely the type of intervention that [the] Strauss,5 Gowen [sic], and Wood6 decisions sought to prevent.7
In a subsequent order, dated August 6, 2009, sanctioning Appellant pursuant to the FCPSA, Judge Dennis stated:
Despite clear case law to the contrary, [Appellant] filed this action seeking judicial determination of whether the decisions regarding her credentialing and privileges were reasonable and in compliance with the Hospital's Bylaws. Specifically, she sought the Court to review whether the failure to process and consider her application for associate status and surgical privileges, her reappointment to the consulting staff, and the denial of an administrative hearing were reasonable decisions made in accordance with the Bylaws. [Appellant's] claims all arose out of the peer review process and, under South Carolina law, are not subject to judicial review, and [Appellant] presented no evidence or reason to persuade the Court to depart from this longstanding principle.
On April 26, 2010, Appellant filed her complaint in the instant action,8 alleging Respondents breached their contract and covenant of good faith and fair dealing by "attempting (successfully to date) to block [Appellant] from being able to seek review of its decision to deny her application for advancement in staff privileges in violation of the letter and the spirit of the applicable bylaws." As a result, Appellant submitted that she "suffered actual damages and special damages, in the form of lost income, and loss of business to her practice, as she has been unable to admit any patients to the hospital to perform medical procedures from 2007 . . . and continuing presently." Appellant sought review of the specific decisions of the Hospital to deny her application for surgical privileges in 2006 and to reject her 2008 application as incomplete.
On September 17, 2010, Respondents filed an answer and counterclaims for abuse of process and malicious prosecution. As part of their Answer, Respondents also moved for sanctions under the FCPSA.
On September 24, 2010, Respondents moved for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to 12(c), SCRCP.9 In their motion, Respondents argued that, based on thepleadings, the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to consider Appellant's claims. A hearing was convened before Judge Dennis to hear arguments on Respondents' motion on December 16, 2010. At the hearing, Judge Dennis orally denied the motion on the basis that it would be more appropriately considered as a motion for summary judgment:
I think the safest for everybody, for review purposes is to have this matter resolved not on a [m]otion on the pleadings but on a [m]otion for summary judgment. I just am not—I understand the jurisdictional issue. There are matters, though, that I—I really would have to rely on certain things outside of the context of the pleadings.
In denying the motion, Judge Dennis not only warned Appellant's counsel against engaging in frivolous proceedings, but took care to reiterate he was not making any ruling with respect to the merits of Respondents' claims that the circuit court lacked subject matter jurisdiction:
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