OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday gave new life to a lawsuit filed by a woman who says someone at a Fremont medical clinic gossiped about her positive HIV test results.
A lawsuit filed by the woman, identified only as C.E. in court records, against Prairie Fields Family Medicine of Fremont will go to trial, the state’s high court ruled.
The woman sued Prairie Fields in 2012, more than a year after she says someone there disclosed her positive test results.
She testified that in 2010, she went to a diagnostic laboratory in Omaha to have a physical examination for a life insurance application. That lab sent her blood sample to another lab, which sent the results to her doctor at Prairie Fields.
Later that year, she went to the clinic to get the results, and was told by a physician’s assistant of the positive HIV results. Her doctor explained the test was actually inconclusive, and arranged for another test. But the woman said the next day, she was contacted by the father of one of her children to ask how she was doing, because a friend of theirs had texted him she had “full blown-out AIDS.”
The woman testified that she had told no one of the test results, and that no one at the labs where the blood was drawn and tested knew her. She testified that she was acquainted with at least one staffer who looked at her file the day she learned of the test results, and later found out a clinic staff member who transcribed her medical records was dating the man who texted the father of her child.
A Dodge County District Court judge dismissed her invasion of privacy claim in July 2012, saying she had missed the deadline to sue. Almost a year later, the court issued summary judgment in favor of the medical clinic on the woman’s claims for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The lower court found that the woman had presented no competent evidence that a clinic employee had disclosed her diagnosis. But the state’s high court said Friday that decision should have been left to a jury.
“The (lower) court incorrectly stated that her evidence must show it was more likely than not that a Prairie Fields employee had disclosed her diagnosis,” Justice William M. Connolly wrote for the high court. “A court does not weigh the evidence at the summary judgment stage.”
An attorney for the clinic, Michael Gibbons of Omaha, said he’s disappointed with the ruling, but is confident that the clinic will prevail.
“The court’s ruling doesn’t change the fact that Prairie Fields did not disclose any information regarding plaintiff’s medical condition,” Gibbons said. “All this decision means is that the plaintiff will get her day in court.”
An attorney for the woman said he would comment on the ruling later Friday.
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