# Cooper v. Forsyth County Hospital Authority, Inc.

> Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · April 24, 1986 · 789 F.2d 278

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/8940598

## Case

- **Full name:** Carlos T. COOPER, Jr., D.P.M. and E. Joseph Daniels, D.P.M. v. FORSYTH COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, INC. Jack P. Barrier, Marian F. Brower, Harley P. Graves, J. Clifton Harper, Kap H. Halverson, Kenneth A. Johnson, Eugene Rossitch, G. Dee Smith, Ann Spencer, Raymond D. Thomas, Martha J. Young, William F. Folds, M.D., David Nelson, M.D., William F. Sayers, M.D. and Louis Shaffner, M.D. individually and as trustees of Forsyth County Hospital Authority George Podgorny, M.D. Robert Means, M.D. Jeff B. Helms, M.D. Frank E. Pollock, M.D. Kenneth G. Tomberlin, M.D. John T. Hayes, M.D. Richard P. Rose, M.D. Robert G. Underdal, M.D. Isabel Bittinger, M.D. Jerome E. Jennings, M.D. The Medical Society of the State of North Carolina and North Carolina Orthopedic Association, Inc., and Carolyn Green, individually and as a trustee of Forsyth County Hospital Authority
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- **Decided:** April 24, 1986
- **Citations:** 789 F.2d 278
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Motz
- **Judges:** Ervin, Motz
- **Cited by:** 14 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/8940598

## Opinion text

MOTZ, District Judge
(concurring).
Because I agree that plaintiffs did not allege a conspiracy among individual members of the medical-dental staff of the For-syth Hospital, I concur. However, in my view Section 1 of the Sherman Act clearly prohibits members of a medical-dental staff from agreeing with one another to coerce a hospital’s trustees to deny privileges to members of a competing profession for the purpose of furthering their economic self-interest. A jury could properly infer the existence of such an unlawful agreement from evidence of threats made to the trustees of mass resignations by the members of the medical-dental staff and the absence of demonstrably sound reasons relating to the quality of patient care underlying the defendants’ actions.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/8940598. Public record. Not legal advice.