Bonni v. St. Joseph Health System (July 26, 2017, G052367) ___ Cal.App.5th ___ [2017 WL 3167351]
A surgeon sued two hospitals under Health and Safety Code section 1278.5, which prohibits health facilities from discriminating or retaliating against medical staff members for presenting grievances, complaints, or reports to the facility or its medical staff. The surgeon alleged the hospitals retaliated against him by summarily suspending his privileges and initiating peer review proceedings against him after he reported patient safety issues regarding defective robotic surgical equipment and substandard staffing conditions. The hospitals moved to strike the retaliation causes of action under the anti-SLAPP statute. They argued the surgeon’s suit arose from peer review proceedings—protected activity under the anti-SLAPP statute. The trial court granted defendants’ anti-SLAPP motion, and the surgeon appealed.
The Court of Appeal reversed. Relying on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Park v. Board of Trustees of California State University (2017) 2 Cal.5th 1057, the court determined that the anti-SLAPP statute did not apply because the surgeon’s claim did not arise from protected activity. The court explained that, “in evaluating whether plaintiff’s claim is a SLAPP, it is not sufficient merely to determine whether plaintiff has alleged activity protected by the statute. The alleged protected activity must also form the basis for plaintiff’s claim.” The “basis for a retaliation claim under section 1278.5 is the retaliatory purpose or motive for the adverse action, not the adverse action itself.” (Second emphasis added.) The surgeon’s retaliation claim here was not a SLAPP because it “was not based merely on defendant’s act of initiating and pursuing the peer review process, or on statements made during those proceedings—but on the retaliatory purpose or motive by which it was undertaken.” (Second emphasis added.) Finally, the court stated that retaliation claims are rarely good targets for an anti-SLAPP motion, and that this case was “no exception.”
Prepared by H. Thomas Watson and Peder K. Batalden, Horvitz & Levy, LLP
California Society for Healthcare Attorneys
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