California Physicians' Service v. Superior Court

The petitioner, California Physicians’ Service, doing business as Blue Shield of California (Blue Shield), seeks extraordinary review of the superior court’s overruling of its demurrer to the plaintiffs’ supplemental complaint. The supplemental complaint attempts to state a cause of action in tort for the filing of bad faith or malicious defensive pleadings. The filing of defensive pleadings is clearly a privileged communication which cannot be the basis for a retaliatory action in tort. The superior court was under an obligation to terminate this spurious cause of action. Its failure to do so, and the absence of any other adequate remedy to forestall this claim, warrants our issuance of extraordinary relief. (Babb v. Superior Court (1971) 3 Cal.3d 841, 851 [ 92 Cal.Rptr. 179 , 479 P.2d 379 ].)

Procedural Background

Since we deal here with a ruling on demurrer, our facts are taken from the complaint. Plaintiff father purchased from Blue Shield a medical health coverage insurance policy for the care of his minor son. During the period of effectiveness of the policy, plaintiff son was injured, requiring treatment which cost $1,212. Although properly notified of the claim,…