Reams v. Composite State Bd. of Medical Examiners, 29548

• Decision Date: 18 February 1975
• Docket Number: No. 29548,29548
• Citation: 233 Ga. 742,213 S.E.2d 640
• Parties: Carey A. REAMS et al. v. COMPOSITE STATE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 640

213 S.E.2d 640

233 Ga. 742

Carey A. REAMS et al. v. COMPOSITE STATE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS et al.

No. 29548.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Feb. 18, 1975.

Hendon, Egerton, Harrison & Glean, Michael Anthony Glean, Decatur, for appellants.

Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Hal Roach, Jr., Deputy Asst. Atty. Gen., Atlanta, for appellees.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

HILL, Justice.

The Composite State Board of Medical Examiners and eleven of its members filed suit in Fannin Superior Court pursuant to Code Ann. § 84-929 seeking to enjoin defendant Carey A. Reams from the unlicensed practice of medicine. The defendant Blue Ridge Health Lodge, Inc., was added by amendment. Following a hearing, the injunction issued and the defendants have appealed, enumerating two grounds as error.

1. Appellants' first enumeration asserts that the court below erred in sustaining appellees' motion for protective order and thereby prohibiting the taking of the eleven individual plaintiffs' depositions at the courthouse of the forum selected by plaintiffs, to wit: the Fannin County Courthouse.

Defendant Reams gave notice of the taking of the deposition of each of the individual plaintiffs, for the purpose of cross examination and discovery, at the forum courthouse, on a given date at specified intervals of time.

Plaintiffs moved for a protective order pursuant to Code Ann. § 81A-126(c), which provides in pertinent part that: 'Upon motion by a party or by the person from whom discovery is sought, and for good cause shown, the court in which the action is pending or, alternatively, on matters relating to a deposition, the court in the county where the deposition is to be taken, may make any order which justice requires to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense, including one or more of the following: (1) that the discovery not be had; (2) that the discovery may be had only on specified terms and conditions, including a designation of the time or place; (3) that the discovery may be had only by a method of discovery other than that selected by the party seeking discovery . . .'

The Composite State Board of Medical Examiners is composed in part of one physician from each congressional district. Code Ann. § 84-903 (Ga.L.1970, pp. 301, 304).

The trial court entered an order that the president of the board would submit himself for deposition at the forum courthouse, but that the other members would be deposed in the county of their respective residences, or in Fulton County at the board's next meeting there or by written interrogatories. Each provision of the protective order is expressly authorized by Code Ann. § 81A-126(c), quoted above.

The issue in this case involved the conduct of the defendants, not the plaintiffs. The record discloses no attempt by the defendants to show to the trial court any possible item of evidence or discovery necessary or helpful to their defense which the protective order prevented them from obtaining.

Ordinarily one who chooses a forum should be required to make himself available for examination in that forum. See Millholland v. Oglesby, 114 Ga.App. 745(1 b), 152 S.E.2d 761; s.c., 223 Ga. 230, 154 S.E.2d 194; s.c., 115 Ga.App. 715, 155 S.E.2d 672. However, the cited case involved a plaintiff residing in Ohio who filed a personal injury suit in Fulton County and thereafter failed to appear in response to a notice of deposition. That case is distinguished from this case by its facts.

Here the deposition of the president of the board was ordered taken at the forum. The remaining officials, who filed this action in compliance with what they considered to be their statutory duty, were made subject to discovery at other places or by other means.

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