K.C. v. County of Alameda

Background

Plaintiffs K.C. and Terri Williams Park moved to compel discovery from Wellpath LLC, which the opinion identifies as the contractor providing medical services at Santa Rita Jail for Alameda County. The civil-rights case concerns the suicide of Jonas Alexander Park while incarcerated at the jail on February 9, 2021.

The plaintiffs sought Part III of Wellpath’s Mortality and Morbidity Report and Review, also called the “Form 01c Report and Recommendations.” They requested reports concerning Park’s death and seven other suicides at the jail: Christian Madrigal, Raymond Christopher Reyes, Jr., Christopher Crosby, Vinetta Martin, Marlon Reyes, Nelson Chia, and Stephen Lofton.

Patient-safety privilege

Wellpath argued that Part III reports were protected by the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act. That law protects certain “patient safety work product,” meaning information prepared, developed, or used within a patient-safety reporting and evaluation system.

The protection does not cover information collected, maintained, or developed separately from that system. The court explained that records created for an outside requirement or purpose are not protected merely because they are also shared with a patient-safety organization. These are sometimes called “dual-purpose” records. Wellpath had the burden of proving that the requested reports were protected.

Evidence

Wellpath relied mainly on a declaration and deposition testimony from Elizabeth Samson, its Director of Continuous Quality Improvement and Quality Innovations. The court found that Samson had little or no personal knowledge about reports prepared before 2023. Her testimony about whether those reports were shared with Alameda County representatives was based on statements from two Wellpath employees during a meeting held after Samson signed her declaration. The court treated those statements as unreliable hearsay and gave the declaration little evidentiary weight regarding the pre-2023 reports.

The court also noted contradictions concerning when Park’s report was prepared and whether the timing complied with Wellpath’s policy. In contrast, the court found Samson’s evidence about Lofton’s 2023 report more credible because she had relevant knowledge of Wellpath’s policies beginning in 2023, directly managed the employee who completed that report, and reviewed an email confirming that the report was submitted to Wellpath’s patient-safety organization.

The court relied on Wellpath’s policy as evidence that the pre-2023 reports had a dual purpose and were shared externally with Alameda County representatives during administrative reviews. It therefore concluded that Wellpath had not provided enough reliable evidence to establish the privilege for those reports. The court found credible evidence that Lofton’s 2023 report did not have a dual purpose and was submitted to a patient-safety organization.

Motion to seal

The plaintiffs also filed an administrative motion concerning whether Wellpath’s Alameda County policy should remain sealed. Wellpath argued that disclosure could reduce employees’ willingness to assess shortcomings candidly and that the policy contained proprietary business information.

The court applied the requirement that a party seeking to seal material attached to a discovery motion show specific harm from disclosure. It found that Wellpath had not made that particularized showing. The court also noted that the policy’s information was already publicly available because a nearly identical Ventura County policy had been filed in another case.

Disposition

The court denied the motion to seal and ordered the plaintiff to refile the unsealed Alameda County policy by September 5, 2024.

The court granted Plaintiffs’ motion to compel as to the Part IIIs created before 2023. It denied Plaintiffs’ motion to compel as to Lofton’s Part III, which the opinion says was completed in 2023 and submitted to a patient-safety organization. Wellpath was ordered to produce the requested Part IIIs other than Lofton’s by September 5, 2024.