Coombs

The trial court granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of Attorney James R. Coombs, the defendant in this action for malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Dr. Daniel A. Williams, the plaintiff below, appeals from the order and judgment, claiming there are triable issues of material fact in his first cause of action for malicious prosecution and denying that a statutory privilege defeats his second cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Granting him half his loaf, we reverse the judgment and reinstate his first cause of action while affirming the trial court on the second.

Facts

Only a brief recitation of the underlying facts are necessary to understand this appeal. On March 26, 1980, Wilma Bube was placed in Siskiyou General Hospital by officers of the Yreka Police Department for a 72-hour evaluation under Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150 because she had made suicidal gestures with a revolver. While the emergency room physician examined her, Dr. Daniel Williams (her personal doctor) came upon the scene and recommended that she be put in a private room rather than the locked room the hospital…