Peer Review Privilege

Jeung v. Allen, No. 245997 (Mich. Ct. App. Apr. 20, 2004)

A physician who was suspended from the staff of a hospital sued the attorneys who provided legal representation to the hospital when the hospital refused to purchase the physician's medical practice and the building that housed the practice. The physician's legal malpractice claims were premised on the hospital's attorneys' providing him legal services in the past. The trial court held that the physician failed to state a claim for legal malpractice and that there was no genuine issue of material fact because all evidence necessary to support the claims was barred from discovery by the peer review privilege and by the attorney-client privilege. The physician appealed.

The Michigan Court of Appeals held that the physician sought information obtained by a peer review committee pursuant to its peer review function. Accordingly, the privilege applied. The hospital had not waived the privilege. Therefore, the trial court properly applied the peer review privilege. The appeals court also held that the trial court correctly found that any confidential communications between the hospital's attorneys and the hospital pertaining to the attorneys' representation of the hospital was immune from discovery under the attorney-client privilege. The appeals court similarly dismissed the physician's claims for tortious interference with a business relationship, and legal malpractice. The judgment of the trial court was affirmed.