Fahlen v. Sutter Central Valley Hospitals

Opinion

BAXTER J.

In Westlake Community Hosp. v. Superior Court (1976) 17 Cal.3d 465 [131 Cal.Rptr. 90, 551 P.2d 410] (Westlake), we held that, before a physician may bring a common law tort action directed against a hospital’s quasi-judicial decision to terminate the physician’s staff privileges, he or she must first exhaust all internal hospital procedures to reverse the decision, and, if this fails, must prevail in court in a mandamus proceeding to have the decision set aside. In two more recent decisions, however, we concluded that persons filing damage suits authorized by certain…