Doctors Ruled Immune in Custody Battle Diagnosis

A judge dismissed most claims in a lawsuit Thursday, ruling that physicians who diagnosed a young girl as having been molested are immune from liability even though the man accused was later exonerated.

The child, now 7, was at the center of bitter divorce between her south Orange County parents in 1984.

In the custody battle, several judges considered the mother’s claim that the father had molested the girl, and they arrived at different conclusions. No criminal charges were ever brought against the father, but for 18 months the mother was awarded exclusive custody, largely as a result of her allegations.

On Jan. 14, 1986, a Juvenile Court judge decided that the girl had not been molested, and decreed that custody should be shared between the parents.

The father, also acting as guardian for the girl, filed a lawsuit in April, 1987, alleging that six physicians and two hospitals were negligent in their conclusions, defamed him, and subjected him and his daughter to emotional distress.

Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor M. Palk on Thursday dismissed all of the father’s claims, ruling that he had failed to file them within a one-year deadline after the 1986 ruling.

Similar claims on behalf of the daughter were not subject to the deadline, by agreement of the parties.

But in the daughter’s case, Palk agreed with lawyers for the physicians, ruling that they were compelled by California’s 1980 Child Abuse Reporting Act to forward their conclusions to officials.

The law provides a criminal penalty for doctors who fail to do so but also blankets those physicians in almost total immunity from civil claims for complying with the law.

Palk relied in part on a decision last month by a state appellate court in Los Angeles in a similar case. On Dec. 10, the court ruled that the Legislature placed the highest value on protecting children and therefore strongly encouraged doctors to report their suspicions.

Ronald Lais, lawyer for the father, said he planned to appeal.

‘This interpretation of state law says a physician or psychologist can say anything they want to if they are reporting child abuse,” Lais said. “It may have absolutely no foundation in fact and they can still say it and be completely immune.”

The judge allowed Lais to amend the claim and resubmit it, which Lais said he will do.

The claim for professional negligence against the doctors is strong, Lais contended. “They put her through the emotional distress of being told that dad molested her, when in fact he did not,” he said.