Strong v. Brakeley — Apr. 2016 (Summary)

PEER REVIEW IMMUNITY

Strong v. Brakeley
Docket No. And-15-260 (Me. Apr. 21, 2016)

The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine affirmed a lower court’s ruling that two physicians were subject to statutory immunity when they provided unfavorable peer evaluations to a credentials verification organization (“CVO”) regarding the plaintiff physician who was applying for medical staff appointment at a hospital that contracted with the CVO.  The plaintiff physician was denied staff privileges after receipt of the peer evaluations, and the plaintiff physician sued the responding physicians, alleging defamation and tortious interference with a business relationship.

The physicians who provided the unfavorable evaluations argued that they were immune from liability under the Maine peer review statute. The court agreed after a complete analysis of the statute, rejecting a number of the plaintiff physician’s arguments regarding the scope and extent of the immunity provided, ultimately holding that the responding physicians were subject to immunity because the evaluations they provided were made for the purpose of assisting a board, authority, or committee in carrying out its statutory “professional competence” duties as a matter of law.