A doctor filed a petition for judicial review of the Appeal Board decision upholding the hospital’s decision to deny her admitting privileges to the hospital on the grounds that she lacked interpersonal skills.  The majority found that it is a hospital board’s duty in selecting doctors for its medical staff to have regard to the ‘whole person’, including character and personality, and to consider what was best for that individual hospital.  The majority found that the hospital board “arrived at their judgment honestly and fairly” and, having acted correctly, the Appeal Board had no reason to reverse the hospital’s decision.  (The dissenting member felt the appellant should be reinstated with a period of probation to give her an opportunity to rectify any errors in communications the hospital saw and for the hospital to correct its procedures.)

The Court allowed the petition and the matter was remitted back to the Appeal Board for rehearing. The Court found that the Appeal Board had applied the wrong test by relying on the subjective reasoning of the hospital board below, which resulted in a fundamental jurisdictional error.  The Court held that the Appeal Board was required to exercise its own judgment independent of the hospital board’s decision below and accordingly the petition was granted and the decision of the Appeal Board quashed, with costs to the petitioner.