Din v. Medical Staff of Sutter Davis Hospital CA3

Filed 3/5/25 Din v. Medical Staff of Sutter Davis Hospital CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Yolo) ----

ADNAN DIN, C097519

Plaintiff and Appellant, (Super. Ct. No. CV2022-1117)

v.

MEDICAL STAFF OF SUTTER DAVIS HOSPITAL,

Defendant and Respondent.

Plaintiff Adnan Din worked as a general surgeon at Sutter Davis Hospital. Din alleges that defendant Medical Staff of Sutter Davis Hospital (Medical Staff), an unincorporated association, made negligent and intentional misrepresentations about the status and effect of administrative investigations into his conduct, causing him to lose a job opportunity with a different employer. The trial court sustained the Medical Staff’s demurrer to Din’s complaint after concluding that Din could not allege justifiable reliance on the Medical Staff’s representations. We agree with that conclusion and affirm the judgment.

1

BACKGROUND I.

“Because this matter comes to us on demurrer, we take the facts from plaintiff’s complaint, the allegations of which are deemed true for the limited purpose of determining whether plaintiff has stated a viable cause of action.” (Stevenson v. Superior Court (1997) 16 Cal.4th 880, 885.) In March 2018, the Medical Staff opened an administrative investigation into Din. The Medical Staff closed the investigation on May 20, 2019, without taking any adverse action. On May 29, 2019, Din received a letter from the Medical Staff’s counsel stating that “any investigations pending against him had been closed.” On July 2, 2019, Din’s attorney had a conversation with the Medical Staff’s counsel in which the Medical Staff’s counsel made several representations, including: (1) “There is no investigation pending against [Din]”; (2) “There are no restrictions on [Din’s clinical] privileges”; (3) Din “is in good standing with the [h]ospital and Medical Staff”; (4) if Din decided “to resign or let his privileges lapse at the [h]ospital, [Din] would not suffer any negative consequences, and such actions were not reportable events”; (5) the Medical Staff’s counsel “was unaware that there were any other complaints pending against [Din]”; and (6) at the last Medical Staff meeting in June 2019, “there was no discussion of any novel complaints against [Din].” The Medical Staff’s counsel spoke frequently with the Medical Staff about Din and investigations into his performance. The Medical Staff’s counsel also communicated with Din’s attorney “on an almost daily basis.” On July 17, 2019, Din received a job offer from a different hospital. At 11:59 p.m. that night, Din emailed the Medical Staff and resigned immediately from the hospital. On July 19, 2019, Din received a letter dated July 18, 2019, summarily suspending his clinical privileges at Sutter Davis Hospital. In January 2020, Din’s July 2019 job offer was rescinded because of the suspension.