Exeter Hospital Medical Staff v. Board of Trustees of Exeter Health Resources,
No. 2001-134 (N.H. Nov. 14, 2002)

A medical staff and its president sued a hospital's board of trustees, challenging a gag order restriction not to discuss the circumstances of the president's removal as a board member. The Supreme Court of New Hampshire, hearing the case on appeal, affirmed the holding of the lower court that the medical staff lacked legal capacity to sue because it was not an entity "separate and apart from the hospital." The supreme court found that, despite the medical staff being "the single most important department in the hospital," it is a "department" and lacks the independence to sue or be sued as a body.