Dhillon v. Tenn. Health Related Bd. of Exam’rs (Summary)

CIVIL RIGHTS

Dhillon v. Tenn. Health Related Bd. of Exam’rs, No. 3-12-0151 (M.D. Tenn. Mar. 7, 2013)

A magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee recommended that the district judge dismiss all claims brought by a former physician against the hospital that had previously employed him, the hospital’s peer review board, the state Board of Medical Examiners, the attorneys at his hearings before the Board, and others.

The physician obtained his license to practice medicine in Tennessee in 1999.  However, within three years, concerns about the quality of care that he provided arose to the level that a hospital that employed the physician initiated peer review proceedings, which resulted in the physician’s employment being terminated.  Although the physician continued to practice at other hospitals, the state Board of Medical Examiners placed the physician’s license on probationary status and later indefinitely suspended his license for exhibiting a pattern of negligent and incompetent practice.

The physician filed suit in state court, although most of the allegations in state court were dismissed, and despite the pending status of the state court proceedings, the physician filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, disparate treatment and racial bias, violation of his due process rights, violation of Title VII, and state law claims.

The magistrate judge described the federal case as a “legal quagmire of [the physician’s] own making,” and his claims as a “hodgepodge of legal theories of recovery,” and recommended that the judge dismiss all of the physician’s federal claims with prejudice because he failed to state claims upon which relief could be granted.