A California appellate court dismissed a defamation lawsuit Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc. brought against its former chief of staff, reports the Los Angeles Times. Michael W. Fitzgibbons, MD, wrote an e-mail message to other physicians, asserting that Western Medical Center-Santa Ana “appears to be underwater” after IHHI acquired the hospital and then defaulted on $80 million in loans in 2005. Integrated later made a payment on the loan, but it claimed that the hospital lost $500,000 from a contract that Blue Cross postponed after seeing Fitzgibbons’ e-mail. The court said that IHHI cannot use the legal system to stifle criticism and ordered the company to pay Fitzgibbons’ $100,000-plus legal fees. IHHI had offered to settle with Fitzgibbons in December, the Times notes, but the offer was declined.
In the discussion of the court’s opinion, Justice Richard Aronson wrote, “We have little trouble concluding Fitzgibbons's e-mail message concerned ‘a public issue’ and ‘an issue of public interest’ under section 425.16, subdivision (e)(4).” Aronson noted that the acquisition and operation by IHHI of four hospitals in Orange County had been the subject of public hearings before the California Senate and the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and had also been discussed in articles in newspapers and other periodicals. “The hearings and articles focused on IHHI's financial ability to successfully operate the hospitals, and the potential harm to the public should IHHI fail,” he wrote. “Fitzgibbons's e-mail message expressing concern for IHHI's financial health and its ability to operate WMC falls squarely within these issues.”
