Wood v. Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center, Inc., 91-3067
| Decision Date | 07 February 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-3067,91-3067 |
| Citation | 593 So.2d 1140 |
| Parties | 17 Fla. L. Weekly D424 Sherry Denise WOOD, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Marshall Wood, Deceased, and Sherry Denise Wood, Individually, Petitioner, v. TALLAHASSEE MEMORIAL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, INC., a Florida Corporation, and Patrick J. McCarthy, M.D., Individually, Respondents. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Sidney L. Matthew of Gorman & Matthew, P.A., Tallahassee, for petitioner.
John D. Buchanan, Jr. of Henry, Buchanan, Mick & English, P.A., Tallahassee, for respondent Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center.
Gary A. Shipman of Collins, Dennis & Truett, P.A., Tallahassee, for respondent McCarthy.
Petitioner, plaintiff below, seeks review by certiorari of a discovery order entered in a medical malpractice action, which order requires all "non-treating medical expert witnesses" who will testify at trial to produce for in camera inspection by the trial court (1) tax returns for the preceding five years, to the extent that they reflect any income received "for reviewing, advising, giving depositions or testifying in any medical malpractice case"; and (2) all documents "which reveal cases in which they have provided testimony either in deposition, arbitration, mediation or at trial for medical malpractice cases in the last five years." Because we conclude that the trial court's order does not constitute a departure from the essential requirements of law, we deny the petition.
To place the order which petitioner challenges in proper context, it is necessary to have some understanding of the proceedings which led up to its entry. A reasonable time before the scheduled depositions of petitioner's non-treating medical expert witnesses, respondents served notices requesting that each witness produce at his deposition "[a] listing of all cases in which [he] has either given a deposition or has testified at trial"; and copies of his income tax returns. (Respondent McCarthy requested "[c]opies of all income tax returns for the years 1980 through 1990"; and respondent Tallahassee Memorial requested "[c]opies of all income tax returns which show the amount of compensation received ... for consulting in medical malpractice cases, giving depositions in medical malpractice cases, or testifying in medical malpractice cases.") Petitioner objected to the notices to produce, stating, in conclusory terms, that the requests were "annoying, harassing, irrelevant, immaterial, burdensome and oppressive." After a hearing, the trial court entered an order which directed petitioner's experts to produce at their depositions "that portion of income tax returns that reveals any income received from reviewing, advising, giving deposition or testifying for the last five years"; and "either a list of all cases in which they have given testimony in deposition or at trial or ... such records [as] they have access to which will reveal cases in which they have provided testimony."
Despite the trial court's order, none of petitioner's experts produced any documents at their depositions. Moreover, during the depositions it became obvious that none of the experts had even made an effort to comply with the order. Respondents attempted to elicit from the experts during their depositions the particulars regarding their participation as experts in other malpractice cases. However, their questions were met uniformly by inability to recall, or by vague and evasive answers. Understandably frustrated, respondent McCarthy filed the motion to compel which led to the entry of the order now challenged by petitioner.
In its order, the trial court first concludes that "[t]he past amount of earnings and past testimony of non-treating medical experts are material matters that are subject to discovery and are relevant issues for consideration as to the credibility of the witness by the jury." The trial court then holds as follows:
[1.] The tax returns for any year in which any non-treating medical expert witness earned any income from reviewing, advising, giving depositions or testifying in any medical malpractice case for the last five years shall be produced to this Court for an in...
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