North Miami General Hospital v. Royal Palm Beach Colony, Inc., 81-456

• Decision Date: 12 May 1981
• Docket Number: No. 81-456,81-456
• Citation: 397 So.2d 1033
• Parties: NORTH MIAMI GENERAL HOSPITAL, a Florida Corporation, Petitioner, v. ROYAL PALM BEACH COLONY, INC., a Florida Corporation, Mona Lewis, and PhylisMcLaughlin, a/k/a Phylis McLaughlin Ratsky, Respondents. Case
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 1033

397 So.2d 1033

NORTH MIAMI GENERAL HOSPITAL, a Florida Corporation, Petitioner, v. ROYAL PALM BEACH COLONY, INC., a Florida Corporation, Mona Lewis, and PhylisMcLaughlin, a/k/a Phylis McLaughlin Ratsky, Respondents.

Case No. 81-456.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

May 12, 1981.

Lawrence & Daniels and Adam Lawrence, Miami, for petitioner.

Nathan & Williams and Martin L. Nathan, Miami, for respondents.

Before SCHWARTZ and FERGUSON, JJ., and EZELL, BOYCE F., Jr. (Ret.), Associate Judge.

SCHWARTZ, Judge.

North Miami General Hospital seeks certiorari review of an order which required it to answer an interrogatory concerning the contents of its admission records of patients not involved in the pending action. We conclude that the burdensomeness and possible breach of confidentiality involved in answering the interrogatory far outweigh the ephemeral advantage the respondent may achieve if a response is required. Accordingly, we quash the order under review.

The hospital is the plaintiff below in an action which claims fraud against the respondent, Royal Palm Beach Colony, Inc. North Miami General contends that in September, 1978, it admitted and treated Phylis McLaughlin, formerly Ratsky, because of a deliberately false statement made by a representative of Royal Palm to a hospital employee, Ms. Fairbanks, that McLaughlin was covered by a Royal Palm group policy which insured her ex-husband. In its defense, Royal Palm claimed, in part, that the hospital should not have relied on this statement because it knew or should have known that an ex -spouse of an employee is not covered under such a policy. Presumably on the theory that, if the situation had not occurred before, the hospital should have been alerted to the lack of credibility in the representation, Royal Palm deposed several hospital employees concerning the extent of their knowledge of such coverage having been provided. Fairbanks, to whom the false statement was supposedly made, said she didn't remember any such previous instance. Another employee, Linda Combs, however, said that it was "very common" that a divorced woman was covered by her former husband's group policy. The defendant thereupon propounded the following interrogatory:

5. During the deposition of Linda Combs, Ms. Combs testified that on 'many' occasions prior to September of 1978 she confirmed with insurance companies providing group health insurance the fact that an ex-wife was covered by the wife's ex-husband's group policy: in reference to that testimony, state the name of each and every insurance company within a one year period prior to September 8, 1978, who advised or confirmed for Ms. Combs the fact that there was such coverage for ex-wives of employees who were covered by group health policies and for each such company state the name of the patient for or about whom confirmation of coverage was being sought.

The hospital objected to this interrogatory on the grounds of oppressiveness and irrelevance. The trial court overruled the objections and ordered an answer. The hospital then filed the present petition for certiorari in this court. The petition is granted.

As we have indicated, "(m)any, probably most, discovery questions may be decided by a proper balancing of the competing interests to be served by granting discovery or by denying it." Dade County Medical Association v. Hlis, 372 So.2d 117, 121 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979). In this case, there is an anvil on the petitioner's pan of the scales, and only a feather on the respondent's.

It is undisputed that, to answer the interrogatory, the hospital would be required manually to retrieve and to review individually no less than 37,037 admission files for the year in question. The expenditure of time and money required for this endeavor is, on its face, a burdensome and oppressive one which may be justified only by a showing of clear necessity which does not remotely exist here. Union Fidelity Life Ins. Co. v. Seay, 378 So.2d 1268 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979); Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Cooey, 359 So.2d 1200 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978); Schering Corp. v. Thornton, 280 So.2d 493 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973). More important is the fact that any revelation of the contents of the documents...