Henry v. QHG of Springdale, Inc.

378 S.W.3d 803, 2010 Ark. App. 847, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 904
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 15, 2010
DocketNo. CA 10-167
StatusPublished

This text of 378 S.W.3d 803 (Henry v. QHG of Springdale, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henry v. QHG of Springdale, Inc., 378 S.W.3d 803, 2010 Ark. App. 847, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 904 (Ark. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Judge.

|, Appellant Rickey Henry challenged the Benton County Circuit Court’s November 9, 2009 order granting attorney’s fees to appellee QHG of Springdale, Inc., d/b/a Northwest Medical Center of Benton County, Arkansas, claiming that the trial court erred. An appeal followed, and an opinion was filed and published by the Arkansas Court of Appeals on September 15, 2010. A petition fop rehearing was filed September 30, 2010, and is hereby granted. Thus, we vacate our prior opinion and reinstate the appeal. As a result, we now have before us the question of whether the trial court erred in granting attorney’s fees to appellee QHG. We affirm the trial court’s award of attorney’s fees.

12Statement of Facts

Henry was a patient at Northwest Medical Center as a result of an automobile accident, and presented his health insurance information during his treatment. The hospital asked patients with insurance to provide insurance information and agreed to process the charges. Henry’s insurance company was WellCare Health Insurance of Arizona, Inc.

On March 11, 2008, QHG filed a notice of lien against Henry for $12,277.40 for medical charges related to his care at Northwest Medical Center. On February 11, 2009, Henry brought a suit against WellCare for breach of contract. On March 31, 2009, QHG filed a second notice of lien against Henry for unpaid medical bills in the amount of $12,277.40. On April 21, 2009, Henry filed a second amended complaint, adding QHG as a defendant and asserting that pursuant to its contract with WellCare, the hospital should have taken an agreed-upon reduction in charges instead of attempting to collect the full bill from him, and that in breaching its contractual obligations to WellCare by improperly submitting Henry’s charges to WellCare, QHG also breached its fiduciary duty to him.

On May 7, 2009, QHG wrote off the remaining $12,216.40, but adjusted the account on May 14, 2009, to reflect a payment of $869.67 from WellCare. On May 21, 2009 (a little over three months after Henry’s suit was initially filed and one month after Henry amended his complaint to add the hospital), QHG wrote off the remaining co-pay amount of $146.09, fully settling Henry’s account. Thereafter, QHG filed a motion to dismiss, or alternately, a motion for summary judgment.

|sBy order dated August 31, 2009, the circuit court denied QHG’s motion to dismiss, granted QHG’s motion for summary judgment as to Henry’s breach-of-fiduciary-duty claim against QHG, and denied WellCare’s motion to dismiss. On November 6, 2009, the circuit court denied QHG’s motion for sanctions, but, stating that the award was pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-22-309(a)(l) (Repl. 1999), the court granted QHG’s request for attorney’s fees in the amount of $1,500 (out of the $4,477.74 requested). Henry filed a motion for reconsideration, or in the alternative, motion for findings of fact and conclusions of law on November 21, 2009, and a motion for clarification on November 24, 2009, both of which were deemed denied pursuant to Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 52(b)(1). Henry filed a motion to dismiss his claims against WellCare with prejudice, so that there would be a final, appealable order, and the circuit court granted the motion.

Henry filed this appeal claiming that the notice of appeal was from the order awarding fees and the deemed denial of the motion for reconsideration and motion for clarification. The hospital argues that Henry filed his notice of appeal as to the order awarding attorney’s fees only, and that no other orders of the trial court are properly before this court. The notice of appeal is incomplete with respect to the motions appealed from in both the addendum and the record before this court. The court only has pages 1 and 3 before it. From these two pages, it is clear that Henry appeals the award of attorney’s fees. Further, the notice of appeal was filed on December 4, 2009. Under Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 52(b)(1), a motion is deemed denied only if the trial court fails to act on it within thirty days of its filing. ^Accordingly, Henry’s motions for reconsideration and clarification were not deemed denied until December 20 and December 23, respectively. An appeal from the denial of these motions that is taken prior to these dates where the notice is not amended after these dates is not timely and will not be considered, leaving the sole issue on appeal whether the circuit court erred in awarding attorney’s fees to the hospital.

Standard of Review

The appellate standard of review for issues of statutory construction is well settled:

The basic rule of statutory construction is to give effect to the intent of the legislature. Where the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous, we determine legislative intent from the ordinary meaning of the language used. In considering the meaning of a statute, we construe it just as it reads, giving the words their ordinary and usually accepted meaning in common language. We construe the statute so that no word is left void, superfluous or insignificant, and we give meaning and effect to every word in the statute, if possible.

Great Lakes Chem. Corp. v. Bruner, 368 Ark. 74, 82, 243 S.W.3d 285, 291 (2006) (internal citations omitted).

The decision to grant or deny attorney’s fees lies within the sound discretion of the trial court, and we will not reverse the decision of the trial court absent a showing of an abuse of that discretion. Taylor v. George, 92 Ark.App. 264, 212 S.W.3d 17 (2005). Generally, in Arkansas, an award of attorney’s fees is not allowed, unless an award of fees is specifically permitted by statute. See Seiden-stricker Farms v. Doss, 374 Ark. 123, 286 S.W.3d 142 (2008).

Discussion

Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-22-309(a)(l) provides as follows:

Un any civil action in which the court having jurisdiction finds that there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party or his attorney, the court shall award an attorney’s fee in an amount not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000), or ten percent (10%) of the amount in controversy, whichever is less, to the prevailing party unless a voluntary dismissal is filed or the pleadings are amended as to any nonjusticia-ble issue within a reasonable time after the attorney or party filing the dismissal or the amended pleadings knew, or reasonably should have known, that he would not prevail.

Subsection (b) of this statute sets forth what is required to find that an issue is nonjusticiable:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Fort Smith v. Didicom Towers, Inc.
209 S.W.3d 344 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2005)
Seidenstricker Farms v. Doss
286 S.W.3d 142 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2008)
Drummond v. Shepherd
247 S.W.3d 526 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2007)
Taylor v. George
212 S.W.3d 17 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2005)
Stanley v. Burchett
216 S.W.3d 615 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2005)
Stilley v. Hubbs
40 S.W.3d 209 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2001)
Great Lakes Chemical Corp. v. Bruner
243 S.W.3d 285 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
378 S.W.3d 803, 2010 Ark. App. 847, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henry-v-qhg-of-springdale-inc-arkctapp-2010.