Lewin v. St. Joseph Hospital of Orange

In Lewin v. St. Joseph Hospital of Orange (1978) 82 Cal.App.3d 368, a doctor argued that a decision to exclude him from a hospital staff must be reviewed under the more searching standards governing administrative mandate (see Code Civ. Proc., 1094.5) because it amounted to an adjudication of his rights. The court rejected this contention because the decision rested on a policy decision by the hospital to maintain a closed staff. "'Generally speaking, a legislative action is the formulation of a rule to be applied to all future cases, while an adjudicatory act involves the actual application of such a rule to a specific set of existing facts.' . ... What was involved was the formulation, or to be more precise, the retention of a rule of general application, not the application of a rule to a specific set of facts or a particular individual. ... We are confident the limited judicial review applicable to the quasi-legislative actions of a governmental administrative agency is also appropriately applied to judicial review of rule-making or policy-making actions of a nonprofit hospital corporation." (Lewin, supra, 82 Cal.App.3d at pp. 383-384.)