McClellan v. Health Maintenance Organization

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• providing that a complaint cannot be dismissed unless the court is convinced that, as a matter of law, no recovery is possible under the facts pleaded
• explaining it would be premature to dismiss plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages in medical malpractice action based on allegations contained in complaint
• stating “it is difficult to picture a fact pattern which would support a finding of intentional fraud without providing proof of ‘outrageous conduct’ to support an award of punitive damages.”
• suit based on liability of HMO for negligence of agent/physician and on intentional misrepresentation or fraud by HMO itself
• *[A] court may not award punitive damages merely because a tort has been committed. Additional evidence must demonstrate willful, malicious, wanton, reckless or oppressive conduct.”
• \HMOs have a non-delegable duty to select and retain only competent primary care physicians.\

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).