Perri FRAME v. MILLINOCKET REGIONAL HOSPITAL et al.
Docket No. Pen-12-322
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
Dec. 3, 2013
2013 ME 104 | 82 A.3d 107
...
[¶17] The former Probate Code, even as it mandated that actions on bonds be brought in the name of the probate judge,6 did not require a plaintiff to obtain the judge‘s permission prior to bringing suit:
Any person interested personally or in any official capacity in a probate bond ... may originate an action on such bond ... without applying to the judge whose name was used in the bond....
[¶18] The current Probate Code, enacted in 1979, did not change this statutory structure. Nothing in the current Code‘s legislative history supports George‘s contention that judicial authorization by the probate judge is mandatory in every case, and George offers no authority to the contrary. We therefore conclude that section 8-313 does not require the probate judge‘s authorization before a suit on the bond can be brought in the Superior Court.
The entry is:
Judgment affirmed.
Mark G. Lavoie, Esq., and Jennifer A.W. Rush, Esq., Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, LLC, Portland, for appellees Millinocket Regional Hospital, Daniel C. Herbert, William R. Jenkins, Kevin R. Olsen, Kwaku Owusu, and Douglas A. Rhoda.
Anthony L. Gray, Esq. (orally), Pollack & Flanders, LLP, Boston, MA, for appellant Perri Frame.
Christopher C. Taintor, Esq. (orally), for appellees Millinocket Regional Hospital, Daniel C. Herbert, William R. Jenkins, Kevin R. Olsen, Kwaku Owusu, and Douglas A. Rhoda.
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, and JABAR, JJ.
Majority: SAUFLEY, C.J., and LEVY, SILVER, and JABAR, JJ.
Dissent: ALEXANDER, and MEAD, JJ.
LEVY, J.
[¶1] Perri Frame appeals from a judgment entered in the Superior Court (Penobscot County, Anderson, J.) dismissing her unsworn notice of claim, filed pursuant to the Maine Health Security Act (MHSA or Act),
I. BACKGROUND
[¶2] On July 27, 2011, Frame filed an unsworn notice of claim with the Superior Court alleging that Millinocket Regional Hospital; Daniel C. Herbert, M.D.; William R. Jenkins, M.D.; Kevin R. Olsen, P.A.C.; Kwaku Owusu, M.D.; Douglas A. Rhoda, P.A.C. (collectively, the Hospital); and Joseph A. Sardina, M.D., were negligent in providing her medical care from July 27, 2008, through August 3, 2008. As required by statute, the Chief Justice of the Superior Court assigned a prelitigation panel chair. See
[¶3] In October 2011, the Hospital filed its motion to dismiss the notice of claim, arguing that Frame‘s unsworn notice did not toll the statute of limitations. The panel chair denied the motion and granted Frame ten days to file a sworn notice of claim that would relate back to the date of her original notice. The Hospital sought reconsideration, asserting that the panel lacked jurisdiction to grant permission to amend. The panel chair vacated her earlier order and referred the case to the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, who specially assigned the case to a justice of the Superior Court. See
[¶4] The Superior Court granted the Hospital‘s motion to dismiss, relying on
II. DISCUSSION
[¶5] We review de novo questions of statutory interpretation, Goudreau v. Pine Springs Rd. & Water, LLC, 2012 ME 70, ¶ 11, 44 A.3d 315, and whether a claim is barred by the statute of limitations, Francis v. Stinson, 2000 ME 173, ¶ 56, 760 A.2d 209. When interpreting a statute, we seek “to give effect to the Legislature‘s intent” by looking at the statute‘s plain meaning, construing the language “to avoid absurd, illogical, or inconsistent results.” Savage v. Me. Pretrial Servs., 2013 ME 9, ¶ 7, 58 A.3d 1138 (quotation marks omitted). We address Frame‘s arguments that (A) her unsworn notice of claim was sufficient to toll the statute of limitations because the tolling provision of the Act,
A. The Tolling Provision of the Maine Health Security Act
[¶6] To evaluate Frame‘s first contention—that her unsworn notice of claim tolled the statute of limitations—we examine the relevant portions of the MHSA in effect at the time of our decision in Paradis, and the corresponding provisions of the current MHSA enacted in 1986 that govern Frame‘s claim.
[¶7] The Legislature adopted the MHSA in 1977 to codify the recommendations by the Commission to Revise Laws Relating to Medical and Hospital Malpractice Insurance, known as the Pomeroy Commission. L.D. 727, Statement of Fact (108th Legis. 1977); see also L.D. 1825 (107th Legis. 1975) (establishing the Commission); Paradis, 409 A.2d at 674 (providing a brief history of the MHSA). Soon after the MHSA‘s enactment, we considered in Paradis the issue of whether an unsworn notice of claim tolled the statute of limitations. 409 A.2d at 673-74. At the time, the Act had one section that addressed the requirements for a written notice of claim and the tolling of the statute of limitations:
No action for death or injuries to the person arising from any medical, surgi-
cal or dental treatment, omission or operation shall be commenced until at least 90 days after written notice of claim setting forth under oath the nature and circumstances of the injuries and damages alleged is served personally or by registered or certified mail upon the person or persons accused of wrongdoing. Any applicable statute of limitations shall be tolled for a period of 90 days from service of notice.
[¶8] In 1986, the Legislature revised the MHSA in various respects.2
[¶9] Frame contends that her unsworn notice of claim was sufficient to toll the statute of limitations because section 2859 makes no mention of the requirement that the notice of claim be under oath. This, she asserts, distinguishes her case from Paradis. We disagree.
[¶10] A third section of the current Act, section 2903(1), requires claimants to have “served and filed written notice of claim in accordance with section 2853” as one of the steps required to commence an action.3
B. Amendment of and Relation Back of an Unsworn Notice of Claim
[¶11] Frame separately contends that the court erred in not recognizing that it had the authority to permit her to amend the defective notice of claim by having it sworn to, and having the amendment relate back to the original filing date in accordance with M.R. Civ. P. 15.
[¶12] The Maine Rules of Civil Procedure “govern the procedure ... in the Superior Court ... in all suits of a civil nature whether cognizable as cases at law or in equity.” M.R. Civ. P. 1. Thus, the Rules of Civil Procedure applied to the court‘s consideration of the Hospital‘s motion to dismiss.
[¶13] Rule 15(a) permits a party to amend its pleading “by leave of court.” An amended pleading relates back to the date of the original pleading where the claim asserted in the amended pleading “arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading.” M.R. Civ. P. 15(c);4 see also TD Banknorth, N.A. v. Hawkins, 2010 ME 104, ¶ 18 n. 5, 5 A.3d 1042 (noting that relation back is “a procedural mechanism to determine the date of the filing of the initial [pleading], usually employed when the [pleading] is amended after the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations“); AFSCME Council 93 v. Me. Labor Relations Bd., 678 A.2d 591, 592 (Me. 1996) (“To rule that an amended [pleading] may not relate back to the filing date of the original [pleading], when the original [pleading] must be dismissed, defeats the very purpose of allowing amend-
ed [pleadings] pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 15.“).
[¶14] However, Rule 15(c) applies expressly to the amendment of “pleadings,” and a notice of claim is not a pleading as that term is employed in Rule 15(c). See M.R. Civ. P. 7(a). Nonetheless, we have previously suggested that courts may have the authority in certain circumstances to permit the relation back of amendments to motions. See Lee v. Maier, 1999 ME 62, ¶¶ 14-16, 728 A.2d 154. The question we must decide is whether, like pleadings and motions, a notice of claim may be subject to amendment that relates back to the date that the notice was originally filed. There are compelling reasons to answer this question in the affirmative.
[¶15] First, Rule 81(f) grants the court the discretion to apply the Civil Rules when appropriate under the circumstances to govern the management and processing of a case: “When no procedure is specifically prescribed, the court shall proceed in any lawful manner not inconsistent with the Constitution of the State of Maine, these rules or any applicable statutes.” The Rules of Civil Procedure therefore allow the court the discretion to permit a plaintiff to amend a notice of claim and have the amendment relate back to the filing of the original notice in a manner consistent with Rule 15(c). See
[¶16] Second, we have previously recognized that the relation-back principle embodied in Rule 15(c) may be applied to permit the correction of a timely but defec-
[¶17] Third, permitting the Superior Court to apply Rule 15(c) to Frame‘s defective notice is consistent with our prior treatment of the details of a notice of claim as directory and not mandatory if the failure to strictly comply with the notice requirements did not prejudice the opposing party. In Givertz v. Maine Medical Center, we stated:
[T]he details of the notice of claim, its verification and service, which are not of the very essence of giving notice of intended legal action and which, if not in strict compliance with the statute, would not prejudice the rights of interested parties ... are to be regarded as directory, [rather than] mandatory....
[¶18] There is no reason to conclude that permitting Frame‘s amended, sworn notice of claim to relate back to the original filing would prejudice the Hospital. No new parties or claims were added with the amended sworn notice of claim. The parties have not yet presented their case to the screening panel or conducted any discovery. Frame promptly filed the amended sworn notice of claim, within four months of the original filing. Frame has not yet sought to file a complaint for professional negligence, and the now-sworn notice provides the Hospital with a basis for a perjury action against Frame.
[¶19] Further, permitting an amended notice of claim to cure the defect caused by the unsworn notice is consistent with the purposes of the MHSA. An amendment that cures a technical defect fulfills the statutory objectives of deciding claims on their merits and encouraging the early withdrawal of meritless claims. See
[¶20] Finally, the United States Supreme Court‘s decision in Edelman v. Lynchburg College, 535 U.S. 106, 122 S. Ct. 1145, 152 L. Ed. 2d 188 (2002), provides persuasive support for the proposition that Frame should have been permitted to amend her notice of claim under the circumstances of this case. In Edelman, the Supreme Court upheld a regulation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission permitting an otherwise timely filer to verify a charge outside the statute of limitations and have it relate back to the filing date of the original, defective charge. See id. at 108-09, 118, 122. The Supreme Court observed that “[w]here a statute ... requires an oath, courts have shown a high degree of consistency in accepting later verification as reaching back to an earlier, unverified filing.” Id. at 116 (footnotes omitted). The Court reasoned that it would be “passing strange” not to permit relation back just because the proceeding was not in federal court. Id. Further, where the verification provision served to limit meritless claims, permitting relation back to cure the defective charge would not significantly undermine this goal, provided that the amended filing occurred before the defendant had to respond to the merits of the charge. See id. at 115-16.
[¶21] Edelman‘s reasoning regarding an administrative proceeding applies with equal strength here. It would be “passing strange” to preclude application of Rule 15(c) to proceedings before the Superior Court. Further, permitting amendment of the defective notice of claim does not significantly undermine the oath requirement because a complainant must still comply with
[¶22] The ultimate purpose of our procedural rules is to secure justice. The court, in concluding that it lacked the authority to permit Frame to amend her notice of claim, poignantly observed: “Reasonable people could doubt the wisdom of imposing such a harsh and unfair result on a party for making such a relatively minor procedural mistake.” Because we have not considered application of Rule 15(c) to a notice of claim since the
[¶23] The Hospital argues that our decision in Paradis interpreting the original MHSA,
[¶24] As a result of the 1986 revision of the MHSA, the document that commences an action for professional negligence is the notice of claim itself, and not the filing of a complaint. Compare
At the time that Paradis was decided, the service of a notice of claim did not commence prelitigation screening, invoke the Superior Court‘s jurisdictional authority, or implicate the Rules of Civil Procedure.
[¶25] Moreover, the policy considerations that underlay our decision in Paradis do not apply here. In Paradis, the plaintiff never sought to amend the unsworn notice of claim, see 409 A.2d at 673-74, and we had no reason to address that possibility in our opinion. We concluded that the oath requirement was crucial to the functioning of the mandatory wait period to “weed out doubtful claims and encourage[] the settlement of meritorious ones.” Id. at 674 (quoting the Pomeroy Commission‘s study). We expressed concern for making “clear the significance of filing the document itself” and providing “a basis for a perjury action.” Id. at 675. In this case, prelitigation screening implements several additional measures that serve this function, including a longer prelitigation period, discovery during prelitigation screening, the presentation of evidence at the panel hearing, and the panel‘s determination of liability. See
[¶26] In short, Paradis does not control the question of whether after the 1986 revision of the MHSA, the court may, in a manner consistent with M.R. Civ. P. 15(c), permit Frame to amend her notice of claim and have the amendment relate back to the date the notice was originally filed.
C. Conclusion
[¶27] We conclude that the court erred in determining that it lacked authority to permit Frame to amend her unsworn notice of claim and have the amendment relate back to the original filing date for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations pursuant to
The entry is:
Judgment vacated. Remanded for entry of an order (1) permitting Frame to amend her notice of claim with the amendment relating back consistent with M.R. Civ. P. 15(c), and (2) denying the Hospital‘s motion to dismiss.
MEAD, J., with whom ALEXANDER, J., joins, dissenting.
[¶28] I respectfully dissent. Although I agree with the Court‘s conclusions that there are no substantive differences between the pre-1987 version of the relevant provision of the Maine Health Security Act,
[¶29] The Maine Health Security Act (MHSA or Act) became effective in 1977 to codify the recommendations of a study un-
No action for death or injuries to the person arising from any medical, surgical or dental treatment, omission or operation shall be commenced until at least 90 days after written notice of claim setting forth under oath the nature and circumstances of the injuries and damages alleged is served personally or by registered or certified mail upon the person or persons accused of wrongdoing. Any applicable statute of limitations shall be tolled for a period of 90 days from service of notice.
[¶30] As noted above, I agree with the Court‘s conclusions that there are no substantive differences between the pre-1987 version of section 2903 of the MHSA and the current version. See Court‘s Opinion ¶ 10. Under either version of the statute, however, the rule is the same—a claimant‘s failure to file a written notice under oath does not toll the statute of limitations. See Paradis, 409 A.2d at 674-75. Thus, at the time when Frame requested leave of court to amend her notice and have it relate back to the original filing, the statute of limitations had already run. Applying the Paradis principles, she was left in the position of a party who seeks leave of court to file a claim after the statutory period for filing had expired.
[¶31] Medical malpractice actions in Maine are based in statute, and, as discussed above, so is the relevant statute of limitations which “should be construed strictly in favor of the bar which it was intended to create, and not liberally.” Nuccio v. Nuccio, 673 A.2d 1331, 1334 (Me. 1996) (quoting Duddy v. McDonald, 148 Me. 535, 538, 97 A.2d 445 (1953)). The court should not lightly expand constraints that are dictated by statute.
[¶32] I do not reach the issue of whether medical malpractice notices are pleadings for purposes of Rule 15, other than to note that we have expressly limited its application to pleadings. See Lee v. Maier, 1999 ME 62, ¶¶ 14-15, 728 A.2d 154 (“By its terms ... M.R. Civ. P. 15(c)(2) only applies to pleadings.“). Nor do I consider whether such amended notices could appropriately “relate back” if filed in a timely fashion. The operation of the statute and the application of the Paradis case produce an inevitable result: the de-
[¶33] I do not disagree that this result can be perceived as harsh. The approach and analysis undertaken in the Edelman case arguably allows a more flexible and forgiving result. However, in Paradis, this Court had the opportunity to fashion a flexible and forgiving approach, but declined to do so.
[¶34] If the Legislature had determined that the holding of Paradis was too harsh, it could have expressly uncoupled the notice and oath requirements when it amended the Act. See, e.g., Stockly v. Doil, 2005 ME 47, ¶ 14, 870 A.2d 1208 (“The Legislature is presumed to be aware of the state of the law and decisions of this Court when it passes an act.“); Taylor v. Town of Orono, 585 A.2d 807, 808-809 (Me. 1991) (holding that defective notice can be excused if there is substantial compliance with the Maine Tort Claims); Townsend v. Me. Bureau of Pub. Safety, 404 A.2d 1014, 1016 (Me. 1979) (noting that the Legislature avoided the harsh results of prior cases that held that a gradually occurring injury was non-compensable by deleting the accident requirement); Michaud v. N. Me. Med. Ctr., 436 A.2d 398, 403 (Me. 1981) (Wathen, J., dissenting) (“In ... areas when the legislature has wished to temper the harsh results of similar provisions, they have demonstrated that they are capable of doing so expressly.“). Instead, the Legislature clearly endorsed our earlier interpretation, as evidenced by the continuity in language used after the amendments with only a minor restructuring of the statutory section at issue.
[¶35] I would conclude that we are bound by our previous holding in Paradis. Here, as in Paradis, Frame‘s unsworn notice of claim failed to toll the statute of limitations. Unless we take the extraordinary step of overruling this Court‘s earlier precedent, potential medical malpractice claimants remain on notice that strict compliance is required with all procedural elements of the MHSA.
[¶36] I would affirm the decision of the Superior Court granting the Hospital‘s motion to dismiss.
Notes
(c) Relation Back of Amendments. An amendment of a pleading relates back to the date of the original pleading when
(1) relation back is permitted by the law that provides the statute of limitations applicable to the action, or
(2) the claim or defense asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading, or
(3) the amendment changes the party or the naming of the party against whom a claim is asserted if the condition of paragraph (2) of this subdivision is satisfied and, within the period provided by Rule 3 for service of the summons and complaint, the party to be brought in by amendment (A) has received such notice of the institution of the action that the party will not be prejudiced in maintaining a defense on the merits, and (B) knew or should have known that, but for a mistake concerning the identity of the proper party, the action would have been brought against the party.