Chery v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance

2014 Mass. App. Div. 45, 2014 WL 1092366, 2014 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 9
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedMarch 17, 2014
StatusPublished

This text of 2014 Mass. App. Div. 45 (Chery v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chery v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance, 2014 Mass. App. Div. 45, 2014 WL 1092366, 2014 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 9 (Mass. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Merrick, J.

The plaintiff, Marie Chery (“Chery), brought this action seeking in count 1, personal injury protection (“PIP”) benefits under G.L.c. 90, §34M for medical expenses for injuries from an accident in which she was a passenger in an automobile insured by the defendant, Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance Company (“Metropolitan”), and in count 2, damages for unfair and deceptive practices arising out of Metropolitan’s alleged failure to pay those PIP benefits timely. Chery by her counsel had sent a written demand for relief under G.L.c. 93A, §9 on September 12, 2007 and brought this action only nine days later on September 21, 2007. On October 15,2007, Metropolitan by its counsel made a five-page response to the G.L.c. 93A demand letter, specifically stating that it did so “[wjithout waiving its procedural defenses.” In its answer to the complaint, filed on October 18, 2007, Metropolitan raised two affirmative defenses alleging the failure to comply with the demand requirements of G.L.c. 93A, §9(3) to be both a failure of notice and a failure to meet a condition precedent.

After suit was brought, Metropolitan paid all of Cilery's medical bills except for one incurred after suit and for which the complaint was not amended to include. A judge then allowed Metropolitan’s motion for summary judgment on both counts, relying on Fascione v. CNA Ins. Cos, 435 Mass. 88 (2001). That decision was the subject of an appeal to the Appellate Division, which affirmed it, and then to the Appeals Court. The Appeals Court affirmed summary judgment for Metropolitan on count 1, the PIP claim, on the ground that the only bill not paid was incurred after suit and was not claimed in Chery’s unamended complaint, but vacated summary judgment on count 2, the G.L.c. 93A claim, holding that Metropolitan’s failure to pay the bills timely, requiring her to bring suit, is a sufficient basis to go to trial on a claim for violation of G.L.c. 93A. Chery v. Metropolitan Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 2009 Mass. App. Div. 210, aff’d in part, rev’d in part, 79 Mass. App. Ct. 697 (2011), rev. den., 460 Mass. 1111 (2011). Neither the summary judgment motion nor the appeal raised the issue of the absence of a demand under G.Lc. 93A, §9 “at least thirty days prior to the filing of any such action.”

After remand, both parties filed motions for summary judgment, Metropolitan now arguing in its motion filed November 23, 2011 that this action was not preced[46]*46ed at least 30 days by a G.L.C. 93A demand letter.

While those motions were initially denied, Metropolitan renewed its argument in a motion to dismiss, designated as a “motion in limine,” when the case was called for trial. Chery argues that Metropolitan had waived the defense. A judge allowed the motion. Chery has appealed.

The demand letter requirement in G.L.c. 93A, §9(3) provides in material part:

At least thirty days prior to the filing of any such action, a written demand for relief, identifying the claimant and reasonably describing the unfair or deceptive act or practice relied upon and the injury suffered, shall be mailed or delivered to any prospective respondent.

“ [T]he thirty-day requirement, as part of the requirement of a written demand for relief, is a prerequisite to suit, to be alleged and proved. (Citation omitted.) But it is not jurisdictional in the sense that a party cannot waive it....” York v. Sullivan, 369 Mass. 157, 163 (1975) (thirty-day notice defense held waived where the defendant did not plead or argue it but the trial judge raised it sua sponte).

Acknowledging that there was not a demand under G.L.c. 93A made 30 days before the suit, Chery intermingles arguments that Metropolitan’s failure to raise the issue in its first motion for summary judgment and on the appeal of the ruling on that motion both waived the requirement and amounted to claim or issue preclusion on the subject.

A waiver is the “voluntary or intentional relinquishment of a known right.” Merrimack Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Nonaka, 414 Mass. 187, 189 (1993). There is no evidence of an intention of Metropolitan to waive the defense. To the contrary, it pleaded the absence of a proper 30-day demand in two affirmative defenses on different theories. It is true that Metropolitan did not raise the argument in its earlier summary judgment motion or the appeal of the ruling on that motion. We are aware of no rule that requires any motion for summary judgment to include all possible defenses to the claim on pain of waiver of any not included in the motion. See Clark v. Trumble, 44 Mass. App. Ct. 438, 440 (1998) (where affirmative defense pleaded in answer, failure to raise it in summary judgment opposition memorandum does not waive it). There would have been little point to Metropolitan raising the issue at that time. Dismissal of the instant action would not have been res judicata barring a second action, since the judgment would have been on grounds usually raised in abatement, specifically failure to meet a condition precedent to suit.1 York, supra at 164, citing Wright Mach. Corp. v. Seaman-Andwall Corp., 364 Mass. 683, 693-694 (1974).

Issue and claim preclusion fall under the rubric of res judicata, and both require the essential element of a prior final judgment. Ajemian v. Yahoo!, Inc., 83 Mass. App. Ct. 565, 571-572 (2013); Korn v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co., 83 Mass. App. Ct. 432, 436 (2013). Of course, there has been no final judgment to serve as the basis for issue or claim preclusion on this G.L.c. 93A claim.

[47]*47Chery also argues that since Metropolitan did not file its answer to the complaint herein until 30 days after the demand letter (and thus had the full 30 days to make an offer of settlement), and since Metropolitan responded to her G.L.c. 93A demand letter without making a settlement offer, it has not been prejudiced by Chery’s premature suit and therefore waived the requirement. The short answer to these arguments is simply that while the statutory condition precedent to suit is clear, there is no language in a statute or a case suggesting that the absence of prejudice to the other party excuses, let alone waives, the condition precedent.

In Barron v. Fidelity Magellan Fund, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 507 (2003), the Court ruled that language in G.L.c. 93A, §9(3) limiting damages in securities cases to actual damages does not preclude an award of attorney’s fees under the next subparagraph, §9(4), where actual damages are found. Id. at 514-515. Contrary to Chery’s wishful thinking, couched in the terms of argument, the case does not suggest that the plaintiff may recover actual damages and attorney’s fees in the absence of a proper G.L.c. 93A demand at least thirty days prior to suit.

Certainly, it is true that “ [w]here the parties try a case on a mutually assumed theory of law, without objection, neither party may be heard to complain on appeal because that theory has become the ‘law of the case.’” Nealon v. Johnson, 2013 Mass. App. Div. 38, 40, quoting H.T. Lummus, The “Law of the Case” in Massachusetts, 9 B.U.L. Rev. 225,227-228 (1929). Here, however, there was no trial or final judgment.

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Related

Merrimack Mutual Fire Insurance v. Nonaka
606 N.E.2d 904 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1993)
York v. Sullivan
338 N.E.2d 341 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1975)
Wright MacHine Corp. v. Seaman-Andwall Corp.
307 N.E.2d 826 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1974)
Riley v. Presnell
565 N.E.2d 780 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1991)
Fascione v. CNA Insurance Companies
754 N.E.2d 662 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2001)
Klairmont v. Gainsboro Restaurant, Inc.
465 Mass. 165 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2013)
Wheatley v. Massachusetts Insurers Insolvency Fund
988 N.E.2d 845 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2013)
Clark v. Trumble
692 N.E.2d 74 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1998)
Barron v. Fidelity Magellan Fund
784 N.E.2d 634 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2003)
Chery v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance
948 N.E.2d 1278 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2011)
Korn v. Paul Revere Life Insurance
984 N.E.2d 882 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2013)
Ajemian v. Yahoo!, Inc.
987 N.E.2d 604 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 2013)
Chery v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance
2009 Mass. App. Div. 210 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 2009)
Nealon v. Johnson
2013 Mass. App. Div. 38 (Mass. Dist. Ct., App. Div., 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
2014 Mass. App. Div. 45, 2014 WL 1092366, 2014 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 9, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chery-v-metropolitan-property-casualty-insurance-massdistctapp-2014.