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Sexual assault claims against physician were not subject to Utah malpractice act
November/December 2024The Utah Supreme Court held that the Utah Health Care Malpractice Act, Utah Code §78B-3-4, does not apply to claims that an ob-gyn had committed sexual assault during medical visits with patients.
Here, 94 former patients of ob-gyn David Broadbent sued him and others, alleging that Broadbent had committed sexual assault and battery while ostensibly providing medical treatment. The defense moved to dismiss on the basis that the plaintiffs had failed to comply with the prelitigation requirements of the malpractice act. The trial court granted the motion.
Reversing, the state high court noted that the act requires a plaintiff in a malpractice action against a health care provider in Utah to take certain procedural steps, including giving the provider 90 days notice and presenting the case to a prelitigation panel. Under the act, the court added, a malpractice action against a health care provider is any action based on alleged personal injuries relating to or arising out of health care that was rendered by or should have been rendered by the provider. Citing case law, the court said that to constitute health care, an action must be within the scope of the care and treatment the provider prescribed or carried out for the patient.
In this case, the court found that Broadbent’s allegedly abusive acts do not constitute health care under the malpractice act because they did not arise from or relate to an act that was within the scope of the plaintiff-patients’ medical treatment, and his alleged actions lacked a medical or health purpose. The plaintiffs claimed that although Broadbent purported to be conducting medical exams and providing treatment, his alleged actions amounted to sexual abuse and were not in fact medically necessary, the court noted.
Consequently, the court held that the plaintiffs had not asserted claims under the malpractice act, and dismissal was improper.
Citation: Doe v. Broadbent, 2024 WL 3710538 (Utah Aug. 8, 2024).
Plaintiff counsel: Terence L. Rooney, Jefferson W. Gross, and J. Adam Sorenson, all of Salt Lake City.
