Mansir v. United States

299 F. Supp. 3d 203
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maine
DecidedMarch 7, 2018
Docket1:14–cv–00503–JDL
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 299 F. Supp. 3d 203 (Mansir v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mansir v. United States, 299 F. Supp. 3d 203 (D. Me. 2018).

Opinion

JON D. LEVY, U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

Timothy W. Mansir, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, alleges that he was negligently treated by Dr. Thomas Franchini (hereinafter "Franchini"), a former Veterans Affairs Podiatrist at the Togus Veterans Affairs Medical Center (the "VAMC"). He also alleges that the VAMC and Franchini fraudulently concealed Franchini's negligence, preventing him from asserting his rights in a timely fashion. In his Third Amended Complaint (ECF No. 93), Mansir brings claims against the federal government (alternatively, "the VAMC" or the "Government") for vicarious liability for Franchini's alleged negligence (Count I); negligent infliction of emotional distress (Count II); and fraudulent concealment (Count III). The Government has moved to dismiss the Third Amended Complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) (ECF No. 99).

This is the second motion to dismiss that the Government has filed in this case. In an Order issued in February 2016, I resolved almost all of the issues raised in the Government's first Motion to Dismiss in favor of the Government, ruling that Maine's three-year limitations period for bringing claims against health care providers, 24 M.R.S.A. § 2902 (2017), is a statute of repose and not a statute of limitations, and that § 2902 is not preempted by the Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA"), 28 U.S.C.A. § 2401(b) (2017). See ECF No. 34 at 40. The Government argues that because § 2902 is a statute of repose, the three-year repose period for the medical negligence alleged by Mansir began to run no later than May 2009-the month of Mansir's last surgery performed by Franchini-rather than from January 2013, when Mansir discovered the facts underlying his claims. Thus, the claims alleged by Mansir are time-barred absent some reason in law or equity for tolling the statute of repose.

Mansir asserts that the statutory tolling provision in 14 M.R.S.A. § 859 (2017) related to fraudulent concealment applies to his claims:

If a person, liable to any action mentioned, fraudulently conceals the cause *206thereof from the person entitled thereto, or if a fraud is committed which entitles any person to an action, the action may be commenced at any time within 6 years after the person entitled thereto discovers that he has just cause of action[.]

14 M.R.S.A. § 859. If § 859 governs Mansir's claims, its six-year limitations period "starts to run when the existence of the cause of action or fraud [was] discovered or should have been discovered by the plaintiff in the exercise of due diligence and ordinary prudence." Westman v. Armitage , 215 A.2d 919, 922 (Me. 1966). Extending the limitations period from three years from the date of the alleged tortious act in accordance with § 2902's statute of repose, to six years from the time Mansir discovered the alleged tortious act, brings Mansir's claims within § 859's six-year statute of limitations. Accordingly, I deferred a final ruling on the applicability of § 859 in connection with the first Motion to Dismiss to afford Mansir, and the plaintiffs in five related actions,2 the opportunity to conduct limited discovery on the issue of fraudulent concealment and to seek to amend their complaints on the basis of that discovery.

For the reasons explained below, I conclude that a genuine dispute of material fact exists with regard to whether the VAMC and Franchini fraudulently concealed instances of medical malpractice from Mansir, and that these facts are inextricably intertwined with the merits of Mansir's claims. Thus, I cannot yet determine whether, as a matter of law, § 859 governs Mansir's claims, and I deny the Motion to Dismiss as to Count I (Negligence) and Count II (Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress) for that reason. The Government also moves to dismiss Count II (Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress) and Count III (Fraudulent Concealment) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to restrictions established by the FTCA in 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 2675(a) and 2680(h), and, as explained below, I conclude that Count III should be dismissed.

II. LEGAL ANALYSIS

The Government seeks to dismiss the Third Amended Complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). A federal court generally may not rule on the merits of a case without first determining that it has jurisdiction over the category of claim in the suit, i.e., subject matter jurisdiction. See Sinochem Int'l Co. v. Malaysia Int'l Shipping Corp. , 549 U.S. 422, 430-31, 127 S.Ct. 1184, 167 L.Ed.2d 15 (2007).

A defendant may challenge the court's subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) in two ways: facially or factually. See Torres-Negrón v. J & N Records, LLC , 504 F.3d 151, 162 (1st Cir. 2007). In a facial attack, the court accepts as true those allegations in the complaint-"sometimes augmented by an explanatory affidavit or other repository of uncontested facts"-that are relevant to jurisdiction, draws all reasonable inferences from them in the plaintiff's favor, and determines whether they are sufficient to establish the court's subject matter jurisdiction. Valentin v. Hosp. Bella Vista , 254 F.3d 358, 363 (1st Cir. 2001) ; see also Torres-Negrón , 504 F.3d at 162.

A defendant may also mount a facial challenge to subject matter jurisdiction:

The second way to engage the gears of Rule 12(b)(1) is by controverting the *207accuracy (rather than the sufficiency) of the jurisdictional facts asserted by the plaintiff and proffering materials of evidentiary quality in support of that position.

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Bluebook (online)
299 F. Supp. 3d 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mansir-v-united-states-med-2018.