N. Watson

During a civil trial, the defendant physician sought to admit hearsay statements made by his deceased office assistant regarding her attempts to contact the plaintiff to reschedule a cancelled appointment.

The court held a voir dire to determine the threshold reliability of the statements under the principled exception to the hearsay rule.

Finding that the assistant's statements were corroborated by physical evidence, including a contemporaneous note and telephone records, the court ruled the statements met the threshold reliability requirement and were admissible for the truth of their contents.

The plaintiff sued three physicians for medical malpractice, alleging that their failure to urgently diagnose and treat her Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome resulted in permanent vision loss.

The court found that the emergency physician and the ophthalmologist met the standard of care in their assessments and referral processes.

While the neuro-ophthalmologist breached the standard of care by failing to schedule an urgent appointment upon receiving the referral, the court concluded that this breach did not cause the plaintiff's vision loss, as her VKH was exceptionally aggressive and blindness was inevitable.

The action was dismissed against all defendants.