A state appeals court says the largest hospital and health care network in California cannot use an arbitration clause in an employee health care insurance plan to sidestep a lawsuit brought by a young woman who is suing Kaiser Permanente for allegedly deceiving her into attempting to transition her gender as a teen.
A three-justice panel of the California Third District Court of Appeal delivered the decision on Sept. 19, ruling in favor of plaintiff Chloe Brockman, also known as Chloe Cole, in her dispute with a group of associated defendants under the banner of the Kaiser Permanente health and hospital system.
In a statement posted on social media by her legal team following the ruling, Cole said: “They tried everything that could to stop me from holding them accountable and tried to bury my case under closed-door arbitration, and it still wasn’t enough.
“Now the whole world is going to see their wrongdoing, and a whole movement of betrayed children and families is going to taken them down. See you in court, Kaiser!”
Cole, proceeding in court under the surname Brockman, filed her legal action against a list of defendants associated with Kaiser Permanente in 2023 in San Joaquin County Superior Court.
Kaiser Permanente operates 40 hospitals and more than 600 medical office locations nationwide, including 37 hospitals in California.
Defendants named in the action include Kaiser Foundation Inc.; the Permanente Medical Group; and health care professionals, including Susanne Watson, a clinical psychologist and director of the Multi-Specialty Transitions Department at Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center; and physicians Lisa Kristine Taylor and Hop Nguyen Le, among others.
Cole is represented in the action by attorneys from the national nonprofit civil rights and constitutional law organization Center for American Liberty, of Mount Airy, Maryland; and the firms of LiMandri & Jonna, of Rancho Santa Fe, and the Dhillon Law Group, of San Francisco.
One of the attorneys who signed onto the original complaint on Cole’s behalf, Harmeet K. Dhillon, has since been appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as an assistant U.S. Attorney General overseeing the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
In the lawsuit, Cole has accused Kaiser and the other defendants of allegedly misleading her into undergoing so-called “gender affirming care” as part of a course of action to address her diagnosed gender dysphoria as a teen.
According to court documents, under the direction of the Kaiser-affiliated medical professionals and at Kaiser Permanente facilities, Cole underwent a series of medical procedures including receiving “puberty blocker” drugs, testosterone and a double mastectomy, in which her female breasts were removed from her chest, after she told her parents and medical professionals that she “identified as male rather than female.”
According to court documents, the doctors set her down the path of gender transition to “align her physical and emotional life with her gender identity.”
In her complaint, doctors and others at Kaiser allegedly scared Cole and her parents into going along with the procedures by telling them Cole “was at serious risk of suicide if she did not proceed” with the prescribed medical course.
According to the complaint, the life- and body-altering procedures and medications were prescribed by Watson, allegedly after just a single meeting with Cole.
According to the complaint, Cole’s mental health issues were not resolved, but rather worsened by the gender transition procedures.
Cole later allegedly learned that the transition procedures and treatments were “not the ticket out of her mental health problems that Defendants promised it would be and she detransitioned,” according to a motion filed in court in 2024.
According to Cole’s court filings, the medical professionals pushing transition “preyed upon Chloe’s delicate mental state, wrongfully validating her pre-conceived, immature notions developed through social media exposure that she was a boy and needed Gender Deforming Interventions to resolve her mental health struggles.”
According to the court filings, this guidance came despite a growing body of evidence showing the prescribed treatment courses were not to be performed on minors, particularly young people “with a complex mental health presentation.”
And according to court filings, the medical professionals allegedly “concealed” that and other key medical information from Cole and her parents, while also “stating false facts” about suicide and other risks facing the girl.
According to the complaint, the irreversible damage to her body and lost developmental experiences, common to women in their teen years, has allegedly left Cole psychologically and emotionally scarred and in need of constant therapy and support.
In response to the lawsuit, Kaiser Permanente attempted to get the action tossed from court by arguing Cole should be forced to take her claims to arbitration. The health system defendants pointed to an arbitration clause included in health insurance plans held by Cole’s mother, while she was employed by Kaiser and a member of the CNA union, and under which the costs of Cole’s proceures were covered.
In court, however, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Robert T. Waters said those provisions cannot be enforced in this case, noting the defendants had presented no evidence that Cole’s mother had actually agreed to the provision.
The decision was authored by Justice Elena J. Duarte. Justices Harry E. Hull Jr. and Ronald B. Robie concurred.
Following the ruling, Cole’s attorneys hailed the ruling as a “massive win for transparency and accountability.”
“Chloe will not be silenced,” said Mark Trammell, chief executive officer of the Center for American Liberty. “She will have her day in court and the truth will come out.”
Jesse Franklin-Murdock, attorney with the Dhillon Law Group, said: “Kaiser fought vigorously to kick Chloe’s case out of court. The Court of Appeals’ decision ensures that Chloe will get the justice she deserves in open court rather than in a secret conference room.”
