Randall v. Buena Vista County Hosp.
| Decision Date | 19 November 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. C 98-3018-MWB.,C 98-3018-MWB. |
| Citation | 75 F.Supp.2d 946 |
| Parties | Dan RANDALL, Plaintiff, v. BUENA VISTA COUNTY HOSPITAL, James O. Nelson, Individually and as Administrator of the Buena Vista County Hospital, Buena Vista Clinic Foundation, and Darrell Pritchard, Individually and as Administrator of the Buena Vista Clinic Foundation, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
Blake Parker, Blake Parker Law Office, Fort Dodge, IA, for plaintiff.
Michael W. Ellwanger, Rawlings, Nieland, Probasco, Killinger, Ellwanger, Jacobs & Mohrhauser, L.L.P., Sioux City, IA, for defendants.
Was the plaintiff discharged from his contracts with a public hospital and a medical clinic in violation of his constitutional and common-law rights and the prohibitions of federal antitrust law? The plaintiff's wide-ranging assertions that he was wrongfully discharged are challenged in the defendants' motion for summary judgment presently before the court.
Plaintiff Dan Randall, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), filed this lawsuit on February 19, 1998, against defendants Buena Vista County Hospital (the Hospital) and Buena Vista Clinic Foundation (the Clinic Foundation), alleging that his contract with each institution had been wrongfully terminated in mid-1996. Randall named as additional defendants James O. Nelson, the Administrator of the Hospital, and Darrell Pritchard, the Administrator of the Clinic Foundation.
In his Complaint, Randall asserts three claims arising from the termination of his contracts with the two institutions. In his first cause of action, Randall asserts a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that the Hospital, "by and through James O. Nelson," discharged Randall as a CRNA "without cause" in violation of his rights to equal protection and due process, as guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Specifically, Randall alleges that the Hospital deprived him of his property interest in his public employment position without due process. In his second cause of action, Randall alleges that "[a]ll defendants" conspired to create an agreement or contract in restraint of trade that would preclude Randall from practicing as a CRNA at the Buena Vista County Hospital in violation of section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. For his third cause of action, Randall asserts a common-law claim that the "defendants" wrongfully discharged him contrary to the stated public policy of IOWA CODE § 20.7(3) and/or the rights guaranteed him by the personnel policies of the Hospital and Clinic Foundation. Randall seeks compensatory and punitive damages, costs, and attorneys fees.
The defendants answered the Complaint on May 19, 1998, asserting, inter alia, an affirmative defense that Randall was improperly splitting his cause of action between the present lawsuit and an action filed in Iowa District Court for Buena Vista County. On September 14, 1998, however, this court granted Randall's motion to strike the defendants' affirmative defense. The court concluded that the acts complained of, and the recovery demanded in Randall's federal lawsuit were not the same as those found in Randall's state-court action.
On August 23, 1999, the defendants mounted another challenge to Randall's claims by filing the motion for summary judgment that is presently before the court. In that motion, the defendants seek summary judgment on all three of Randall's claims on various grounds. Randall resisted the motion on October 8, 1999. Neither party requested oral arguments on the motion for summary judgment and the court has therefore considered the motion on the record and written arguments presented.
The court will discuss here only the nucleus of undisputed facts pertinent to the present motion for summary judgment. In its legal analysis, the court will address where necessary Randall's assertion of genuine issues of material fact that may preclude summary judgment on his claims.
Mr. Randall, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), originally provided anesthesia services at the Hospital pursuant to an Anesthesia Services Agreement, which became effective July 15, 1991. The contract provided that Randall was an "independent provider of professional anesthesia services, and nothing in this Agreement shall constitute or be construed in any manner so as to create an employment relationship or an agency, partnership or joint venture relationship between Hospital and Anesthetist." Appendix To Defendants' Motion For Summary Judgment, Deposition Exhibit No. 3, Anesthesia Services Agreement of July 15, 1991 (Randall's Anesthesia Services Agreement), Art. VI. Randall was also admitted as an Allied Health Professional (AHP) with clinical privileges at the Hospital.
Randall originally practiced with another CPNA, Jerry McMichael, in a business named Anesthesia Associates. McMichael and Randall shared the work at the Hospital and split the fees evenly between them. An entity called the Buena Vista Clinic provided billing services for McMichael and Randall and was paid 15% of fees billed for doing so. The Buena Vista Clinic, which operated a family practice office in Storm Lake, Iowa, was a separate entity from the Hospital. The Buena Vista Clinic later incorporated as the defendant Buena Vista Clinic Foundation (the Clinic Foundation).
In August of 1995, Randall and McMichael became employees of the Clinic Foundation. Randall entered into a Professional Employment Contract with the Clinic Foundation, effective August 21, 1995. This Professional Employment Contract required, inter alia, that Randall obtain and maintain good standing membership on the AHP staff at the Hospital with appropriate clinical privileges. Mr. Randall understood that the change in employment status would mean that the CRNAs would be better able to set up retirement plans and to obtain access to other employment benefits. However, Randall did not terminate his independent contract with the Hospital at the time he became an employee of the Clinic Foundation.
Randall's professional and personal relationship with McMichael became strained during 1995 and 1996. Each apparently made complaints about the professional competence of the other to the Clinic Foundation and the Hospital. Various meetings were held involving Mr. Nelson, Mr. Pritchard, McMichael, and Randall during the summer of 1995. Randall was apparently informed at about this time that he would not have a leadership role in the anesthesia department of the Hospital. In August of 1995, another CRNA, John Peters, also began providing anesthesia services at the Hospital, also as an independent service provider. Mr. Peters also expressed personal and professional concerns about working with Randall.
At some time in 1995 or 1996, the Hospital and Clinic Foundation began negotiating, and possibly operating under, an agreement pursuant to which the Clinic Foundation would provide services of CRNAs to the Hospital. A formal, written Anesthesia Services Agreement to that effect was eventually executed on July 1, 1996. Pursuant to the July 1, 1996, agreement, the Clinic Foundation was to provide professional anesthesia services "on an exclusive basis." On April 30, 1996, prior to execution of the exclusive provider agreement between the Clinic Foundation and the Hospital, the Hospital sent all three CRNAs — Randall, McMichael, and Peters — official 60-day notices of the termination of their individual Anesthesia Services Agreements. On April 28, 1996, two days prior to the date on which the Hospital sent the three CRNAs notice of the termination of their individual Anesthesia Services Agreements, Mr. McMichael, who was suffering from cancer, advised Mr. Nelson by letter that he was terminating his contract to provide anesthesia services to the Hospital effective that day, stating that his "reasons for termination are health related — and in my best interest."
On May 28, 1996, at a meeting in Mr. Nelson's office, at which Nelson, Pritchard, Peters, and Randall...
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