The Utah Supreme Court unanimously decided a sexual assault lawsuit filed by 94 patients against a Utah OB-GYN shouldn’t be judged as medical malpractice, reviving the legal challenge previously dismissed by a lower court.
Justices concluded the patients didn’t allege injuries related to the health care that David Broadbent, a Provo doctor then practicing at Utah Valley Hospital, provided. The injuries were caused “by actions that were not medical treatment and had no medical purpose.”
The patients alleged instances of sexual assault between 1979 and 2021 during their medical appointments, with many describing feeling “distraught,” “terrible” and “violated,” according to the suit.
Now, the patients are able to pursue the lawsuit introduced to a district court with claims of sexual battery, sexual assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“The point of their claims is that his actions were not really health care at all. And the fact that Broadbent committed the alleged sexual assaults during medical appointments or examinations does not bring that conduct within the Malpractice Act’s definition,” the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion.
The court also mentioned SB 247, a bill the Utah Legislature passed in 2023, which made changes in malpractice statute clarifying that health care doesn’t include acts that are sexual in nature even if the act was committed “under the auspice of providing professional diagnosis, counseling, or treatment; or at the time the act occurred, the victim believed the act was for medically or professionally appropriate diagnosis, counseling, or treatment.”
The bill was brought by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, after the lawsuit’s initial dismissal. Though the defense argued the bill confirmed the case fell under the previous version of the Malpractice Act, justices disagreed and said the act had been clear before the changes.
Attorneys representing Intermountain Health, which runs Utah Valley Hospital, didn’t have any comment on the decision and Broadbent’s attorneys weren’t available to discuss the allegations.
Written by ALIXEL CABRERA, Utah News Dispatch.
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