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Imperial v. Drapeau8/27/1998
[Defamation - Physician's letter to Governor and to Member of Congress vigorously complained of conduct of emergency medical technician and asked for investigation. Held: Letter absolutely privileged under same privilege applicable to police brutality complaints.]
Circuit Court for Montgomery County Case # 148686 Civil
September Term, 1997
Opinion by Rodowsky, J. Bell, C.J., Chasanow & Wilner dissent.
This action was brought by a rescue squad emergency medical technician (EMT) against a physician who wrote identical, allegedly defamatory letters of complaint about the EMT to the Governor and to a member of Congress. As explained below we shall hold that the communications were absolutely privileged.
The Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, Inc. (BCCRS), in addition to its emergency response service, transports patients by ambulance to hospitals under non- emergency circumstances. The latter service is not limited to transportation to the nearest hospital. This litigation arises out of a request made June 28, 1995, by the defendant- petitioner, Dr. Roland Imperial (Imperial), to have the BCCRS transport his patient, Ruth England (England), to Sibley Hospital.
At the time of the events described below England had been Imperial's patient for fifteen years. She was eighty years old and suffered from cancer of the left lung, emphysema, asthma, heart failure, and a chronic duodenal ulcer. During a hospitalization at Sibley from May 17 to June 13, 1995, part of her left lung had been removed. England lived alone in an apartment in Bethesda, tended, at least part of the time, by a nurse's aide. On June 28, 1995, at 11:30 a.m., in response to a telephone call from the nurse's aide, Imperial examined England at her apartment. Imperial found his patient dehydrated, due to diarrhea and vomiting, and with low blood pressure, which Imperial attributed to medications and anemia. He determined that the situation was not an emergency, but that England should be readmitted to Sibley, and he obtained by telephone the consent of one of England's sons to that course of action.
Imperial telephoned BCCRS, spoke with the dispatcher on duty, the plaintiff- respondent, Wayne A. Drapeau (Drapeau), and requested England's non-emergency ambulance transport to Sibley. Imperial had already made arrangements with Sibley to admit his patient. Drapeau advised an ambulance crew to transport England to Sibley, but Drapeau was not a member of the crew that responded. When the ambulance arrived at England's residence the two EMTs comprising the crew found England's blood pressure to be 86/60 and that she was unaware of her surroundings. They determined that, under those circumstances, the applicable protocols required them to take England to the closest hospital, which was Suburban Hospital, rather than Sibley. Imperial does not have privileges at Suburban.
Later that afternoon, when Imperial was unable to locate England at Sibley, he telephoned the BCCRS and spoke with Sergeant Patrick Geraghty, who informed him that England had been transported to Suburban.
Subsequently, on July 6, 1995, Imperial wrote two identical seven-page letters of complaint "RE: Abuse of Authority by Pvt. Wayne Drapeau of the Bethesda Rescue Squad." One letter was sent to Imperial's congresswoman, Constance A. Morella, while the other was sent to Governor Parris N. Glendening. The first three pages of the letter relate England's medical history and emphasize that, when Imperial had telephoned for transportation, he asked for non-emergency service because the situation was not one of acute distress.
The balance of Imperial's letter raises a
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