🚀 go-pugleaf

Here's Judge Jefferson's answer to the airport problem:

P's claim of privilege should be sustained.  (See _Britt v. Superior 
Court_ (1978) 20 C3d 844, 143 CR 695.)

In Britt, the court held that the patient-litigant exception, which comes 
into play when the patient tneders the issue of his physical or 
emotional condition, does not waive the privileges for physical or mental 
conditions not specifically in issue by his lawsuit.  Thus, D Airport was 
not entitled to obtain the lifetime medical histories of P by invoking 
the patient-litigant exception to the physician-patient and 
psychotherapist-patient privileges.  The Britt court reaffirmed its 
previous  views in _In re Lifschutz_, and _Roberts v. Superior Court_ 
that the patient-litigant exception was to be given a narrow 
interpretaion as to the waiver of these privileges resulting from a 
patient suing and putting only specified medical and mental conditions in 
issue.  Here, P's lawsuit put in issue only a hearing loss and emotional 
stress resulting in ulcers and high blood pressure -- not every ailment 
in his lifetime for which he had ever sought medical or psychiatric help.

-- 
bross@uclink.berkeley.edu (Bonnie Ross) Boalt Hall School of Law
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