Judge Denies Woman’s Plea for Female Doctor : Court: Simi plaintiff in injury lawsuit was ordered to undergo a medical exam. She says she was abused as a teen-ager by a male physician.

A Ventura County Superior Court judge has rejected a Simi Valley woman’s request that a court-ordered physical exam be conducted by a female doctor--despite the woman’s claim that she was sexually abused as a teen-ager by a male physician.

Patty Fairchild’s request grew out of her lawsuit against a Moorpark restaurant and shopping plaza. Fairchild, 39, charges the restaurant with spilling greasy water in the parking lot, causing her to fall and injure her back in an accident almost three years ago.

When lawyers for the Varsity Park Plaza and Manny’s Taco de Mexico Restaurant asked that Fairchild submit to a doctor’s physical examination, she agreed, but demanded a female physician.

On Dec. 13, Judge Edwin M. Osborne turned down Fairchild’s request that he require the defendants to name a female doctor, instead ordering Fairchild to undergo an exam by a previously selected male physician by Jan. 14.

Fairchild became a well-known figure around Ventura County in the late 1980s when, as a resident of Thousand Oaks, she successfully fought attempts by the city and her neighbors to force her to give up her miniature horse, Ragtime, who lived in her back yard. The case gained international publicity.

Fairchild said she is deeply afraid of being examined by male physicians, particularly of undressing in front of them, because she was sexually molested by a male doctor when she was 16. Fairchild said she was molested while being treated for a heart problem in a San Fernando Valley hospital. Although she told her parents about the incident at the time, they did not pursue any action against the doctor, she said.

Fairchild buried the memories until about 2 1/2 years ago, she said, when she encountered another woman who said she had been abused by the same doctor. By that time, the physician had died. Since then, Fairchild said, she has avoided visiting male doctors, except for one she saw soon after the accident.

It doesn’t comfort her, she said, that she would be allowed to have her husband or friends present with her during the examination.

“I don’t care if there’s one person in the room or 10,” she said. “It’s not going to make me feel any better.”

State law requires plaintiffs in civil suits to submit to physical examinations by a doctor chosen by the defendant, unless the procedure would be painful, protracted or intrusive.

In requesting Osborne to order the defendants to find a female doctor, attorney David L. Fishman argued that an exam by a male physician would be intrusive to Fairchild because it would cause her both emotional and physical pain.

But Osborne said Tuesday that Fairchild’s claim of emotional pain from prior sexual abuse failed to justify his requiring the appointment of a female physician.

Fairchild’s physical examination is now scheduled for next Wednesday.

Fairchild and her husband filed the lawsuit in November, 1991. She said the accident occurred Feb. 7, 1991, while she was working for a pet shop in the plaza. Fairchild was dumping trash outside when she fell, injuring the lower vertebrae in her back, she said. She said she slipped on a greasy residue left when the restaurant had washed its kitchen floor mats in the parking lot.

The attorney for the shopping plaza and restaurant could not be reached for comment.

Seeking unspecified payment for damages and medical expenses, Fairchild said that lingering pain from the accident has limited her activities and prevents her from training horses.

Fairchild now works for a pet shop in Woodland Hills and also earns money by renting Ragtime to film and TV companies.