Arnett Physician Group, P.C. v. Greater Lafayette Health Servs. (Summary)

ANTITRUST

Arnett Physician Group, P.C. v. Greater
Lafayette Health Servs., Inc., No. 4:05-CV-00016-AS (N.D. Ind. July 29, 2005)

A
physician group sued a health system and various individual physicians claiming
a violation of the federal antitrust laws. The defendants moved to dismiss
the lawsuit and the Northern District of Indiana agreed, dismissing all of
the federal law claims with prejudice. The district court held that the physician
group failed to sufficiently plead an antitrust injury. The district court
found that the group failed to plead facts relating to a relevant geographic
market which would allow an inference of monopoly power. The court also ruled
that the hospital did not violate the antitrust laws by substituting one
exclusive radiology services provider for another.

The group also alleged that the health system’s publicity campaign against
construction of a new hospital caused antitrust injury. Again the court disagreed,
stating that public expressions of opinion cannot provide a basis for an antitrust
injury but is part of the "marketplace of ideas." Finally, the physician
group alleged that the individual physician defendants had violated the antitrust
laws by filing a lawsuit against the group in state court. The district court
disagreed, finding that the lawsuit was protected from antitrust liability
by the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine. While the court noted that the courts have
recognized a "sham" lawsuit exception to the application of Noerr-Pennington
immunity, the district court ruled that there was no set of facts alleged that
would permit this exception to apply.