ALEXANDER v. Knight

How later courts describe this case

• noting that a treating doctor owes “a duty to refuse affirmative assistance to the patient’s antagonist in litigation”
• reasoning that members of the medical profession owe “a duty to aid the patient in litigation” and “a duty to refuse affirmative assistance to the patient’s antagonist in litigation,” subject to the physician’s obligation “to speak the truth ... only at the proper time.”
• stating physician's fee for five office visits and physician's fee for writing report
• “We are of the opinion that members of a profession, especially the medical profession, stand in a confidential or fiduciary capacity as to their patients.”
• physician owes patient a duty to refuse affirmative assistance to patient's adversary in litigation
• see 25 Pa. D. & C. 2d 649 [1961] for text of opinion
• aff'd. per curiam on the opinion of the trial judge
• fiduciary relationship between physician and patient