Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

get an injunction to prevent a hospital from a summary termination of his or her
medical staff privileges. The surgeon’s argument would be that his or her career and
reputation would be permanently damaged and that his or her patients would be put
at risk. The judge might grant such an injunction unless the hospital could show that
the risk to patients was greater if the surgeon were allowed to continue to practice
while the hospital conducted hearings on the termination of privileges.
When a temporary injunction is granted, the plaintiff must post a bond that is
sufficient to compensate the defendant if the plaintiff does not prevail in the case. If
the plaintiff does prevail, the bond is refunded, and the court may enter a permanent
injunction to prevent the complained-of conduct. If the defendant prevails, the bond
will be used to pay any damages that the defendant can prove were caused by the
injunction. Since an injunction is a court order, violating an injunction is contempt of
court and may be punished by a fine or imprisonment.
Injunctions are often requested in cases such as medical staff disputes, withdrawal of
life support cases, and cases involving the treatment of children. In these cases, the
complaining party attempts to convince the court that since human lives are at stake,
the court must step in. In some cases, courts have tried to order pregnant women not
to have abortions, or to submit to certain types of medical care ordered by their
physicians. These are controversial actions and will be discussed in greater detail in
subsequent sections. In some cases these are resolved by injunctions, but in most
cases they require the appointment of a guardian who will determine what is in the
best interest of the patient.
The courts are generally unwilling to use injunctions to enforce personal service
contracts, such as research contracts or employment contracts. As an example,
assume that you sign a contract to perform a study for the Dreck drug company but
never complete the study. Dreck is furious and sues to force you to complete the
study. You offer to return the money you have been paid, but Dreck refuses, claiming
that you must complete the study so approval of its drug will not be delayed. Since
you have a detailed agreement as to how the study is to be conducted, why shouldn’t
the court force you to comply with the agreement?
The problem with ordering the performance of a personal services contract is that
courts want to make rulings that end disputes. If the court orders you to complete the
study, it will be faced with determining whether you are working fast enough, if your
work is of acceptable quality, and other issues as to the performance of the contract.
The court’s ruling would only create new disputes. This pragmatism, combined with
a reluctance to interfere in individual behavior, results in the policy of refusing to
enforce personal services contracts. The court may award the plaintiff (Dreck)
monetary damages for any extra costs entailed in having someone else complete the
study.
An increasingly common problem is the reverse of this situation: the medical care
practitioner has signed a contract that has a noncompete agreement. This might say
that the signer agrees not to work for competing managed care plan for a year, or that
the practitioner will not practice within three miles of the previous employer for two
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