Ransom v. Radiology Specialists of the Nw., 363 Or. 552

Summary

The Oregon Supreme Court considers whether a plaintiff may depose radiologists who participated in her medical care about their present ability to interpret imaging studies they previously reviewed, despite their lack of independent memory of the original examinations. The court holds that the questions are relevant discovery under ORCP 36 B, do not constitute impermissible expert discovery, and do not invade the attorney-client privilege. The court directs issuance of a peremptory writ of mandamus.

Holdings

1. Under ORCP 36 B, a participating expert may be questioned about any matter relevant to the expert's direct involvement in the events at issue, including questions requiring application of the expert's knowledge and training to those events.
2. Questions about what participating radiologists could see in the plaintiff's 2013 imaging studies in 2016 were relevant and reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence about what the radiologists perceived and knew when they treated the plaintiff in 2013.
3. An objection that deposition answers may be affected by hindsight is not a permissible basis for instructing a deponent not to answer under ORCP 39 D(3).
4. OEC 503 does not protect deposition questions asking what radiologists currently see in medical images merely because their answers may have been affected by information received from defense counsel.

Questions Presented

1. Whether ORCP 36 B permits a party to question participating physician-radiologists about what they currently see in imaging studies they reviewed while treating the plaintiff.
2. Whether such questions constitute impermissible expert discovery under Oregon law.
3. Whether the possibility that the radiologists' current observations were affected by hindsight rendered the questions irrelevant or otherwise permitted counsel to instruct the witnesses not to answer.
4. Whether the attorney-client privilege under OEC 503 protected answers concerning what the radiologists currently saw in the plaintiff's imaging studies.

Disposition

writ_granted