William A. BROWN, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SIERRA NEVADA MEMORIAL MINERS HOSPITAL, Et Al., Defendants-Appellees

Dr. William Brown, a black man, filed suit against Sierra Nevada Memorial Miners Hospital (Sierra) and seven doctors affiliated with Sierra, alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 . The district court found for the defendants, and Brown appealed. We affirm.

I.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Brown has been a physician for over forty years and is licensed in California, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, and West Virginia. He practiced in California from 1960 to 1978. He then worked briefly in Ohio and Oregon before returning to California and applying for general surgical privileges at Sierra in Penn Valley in March 1980. Four months later, after Sierra’s application process was completed, Sierra gave Brown associate staff privileges. “This entitled him to admit patients to the Hospital and perform surgical procedures, with retrospective review of his patient charts and contemporaneous observation (‘proctoring’) of his surgical cases by active staff members.” Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Excerpt of Record (E.R.) at 182.

Brown states that while he was waiting to receive associate status, Sierra changed its bylaws to require proctoring. He charges that this change and the…