Kaplan v. Goodfried

GUITTARD, Justice.

Dr. Martin Kaplan, an osteopathic physician, sued Dr. Paul Goodfried, an orthopedist, and Mary Jane Ulrich, his secretary and receptionist, for alleged slanderous remarks made to a patient of Dr. Kaplan’s who had been referred to Dr. Goodfried for an examination. Our questions are whether the trial court properly excluded evidence of a similar remark by Dr. Good-fried to another patient of Dr. Kaplan’s three years earlier, and whether the statement by the secretary was privileged. We hold that the earlier remark by Dr. Good-fried was properly excluded and that the statement…