After the anesthesiology department of a hospital underwent a restructuring, four anesthesiologists who had been working there under their practice group were not selected for continued employment. Alleging that they had been wrongfully terminated because they had voiced concerns of fraudulent billing practices by fellow anesthesiologists, the four anesthesiologists — Angel Cancel, M.D., Pravin Jain, M.D., Grace Duque-Dizon, M.D., and Monajna Sanjeev, M.D. — filed suit. Included amongst the defendants they named, as have since been grouped by the litigating parties, were: a Alvin Sewell, M.D., Sanjiwan Tarabadkar, M.D., and Miles H. McDonald, M.D.; and b Louis Goolsby, M.D., A. Donald Faulk, and The Medical Center of Central Georgia, Inc. “The Medical Center”.
In our decision at Cancel v. Sewell,1 we reviewed several rulings on various defendants’ motions for summary judgment.2 And for reasons explained therein, we affirmed the judgment in Case No. A12A1950; we reversed in part the judgment in Case No. A12A1951, while dismissing that case in part; and we dismissed Case No. A12A1952.3 The dismissals were based on our determination that this court lacked jurisdiction of an order that had been entered after the filing of the original notice of appeal.4 In Sewell v. Cancel,5 the Supreme Court of Georgia concluded that jurisdiction had been perfected as to that order, and thus reversed our decision otherwise and remanded Case Nos. A12A1951 and A12A1952 to us for further proceedings.6 Accordingly, we vacate Divisions 7 and 9 of our decision at Cancel v. Sewell,7 which divisions pertained to Case Nos. A12A1951 and A12A1952. Because the remainder of our opinion at Cancel v. Sewell is not inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s decision, it stands unchanged. Therefore, much of the factual and procedural background detailed in that opinion need not be repeated here.