Mensah, R. v. National Board of Medical Exam.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 1, 2021
Docket564 EDA 2021
StatusUnpublished

This text of Mensah, R. v. National Board of Medical Exam. (Mensah, R. v. National Board of Medical Exam.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mensah, R. v. National Board of Medical Exam., (Pa. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

J-S28005-21

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

REGINA MENSAH : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA Appellant : : : v. : : : NATIONAL BOARD OF MEDICAL : No. 564 EDA 2021 EXAMINERS :

Appeal from the Order Entered February 9, 2021 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Civil Division at No(s): No. 190201342

BEFORE: BOWES, J., DUBOW, J., and PELLEGRINI, J.*

MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED OCTOBER 1, 2021

Regina Mensah appeals from the February 9, 2021 order granting

summary judgment in favor of the National Board of Medical Examiners

(“NBME”). We affirm.

Dr. Mensah commenced this action on February 14, 2019, by filing a

praecipe for writ of summons and a motion for leave to take pre-complaint

discovery. In the latter, she sought the “recorded answers” and the “correct

answers” on two of the United States Medical Licensing Examinations

(“USMLE”) she failed in 2018. The request was calculated to determine

whether NBME made errors in grading her examinations that she believed she

____________________________________________

* Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court. J-S28005-21

had passed. NBME provided Dr. Mensah’s answers and the correct answers

to her counsel, counsel moved to withdraw, and the court granted the motion.

After several continuances, Dr. Mensah filed a pro se complaint against

NBME on January 31, 2020. She averred therein that she is a Canadian citizen

and that she graduated from All Saints University School of Medicine in

Dominica in the Caribbean. Before she could pursue her medical residency

and accreditation in the United States, she was required to pass Steps 1 and

2 of the three-step USMLE. Dr. Mensah pled that she passed Step 2 on May

16, 2013, but had been unsuccessful in passing Step 1 on four attempts, the

latest being March 8, 2018. She alleged that by “registering and paying for

the examination and fulfilling all requirements to sit for the examination, [she]

and [NBME] entered into a Contract” that obligated NBME to permit her to

review the results of the examination. By refusing to permit her to review her

examination, Dr. Mensah alleged that NBME had breached that contract. She

also sought declaratory relief based upon allegations that NBME was negligent

in the scoring of the exams, the results were unreliable, and that it breached

its duty to “provide true and valid raw scores that are meaningful and

authenticated.” Id. at ¶ 18(h).

NBME filed an answer to the complaint admitting that it is a non-profit

organization that “develops and provides for the administration of the multi-

step USMLE that medical students and graduates of U.S. and foreign medical

schools must pass if they wish to practice in the United States.” Answer,

-2- J-S28005-21

2/24/20, at ¶¶ 3-5. It pled that Dr. Mensa failed to pass Step 1 on five

occasions, and that although she passed the CS portion of Step 2, she failed

Step 2 CK on May 30, 2016. Id. at ¶ 9. NBME averred that at Dr. Mensah’s

request, NBME rechecked two of the exams and concluded that there was no

error in the scoring. Additionally, it provided Dr. Mensah with her raw answers

and the correct answers.

NBME denied the existence of any contract with Dr. Mensah that

permitted her to obtain the proprietary test questions that it spent “enormous

resources to create, verify, test, and analyze, and for which NBME maintains

rigorous security to protect the integrity of the exam” for purposes of obtaining

an independent review. Id. at ¶¶ 13-17. In new matter, NBME pled, inter

alia, that Dr. Mensah’s scores were entirely consistent with her poor

performance on self-assessments that she took at home prior to the exams.

New Matter, 2/24/20, at ¶ 48.

NBME filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, which was denied

by order entered June 23, 2020. At the conclusion of discovery, NBME filed a

motion for summary judgment in which it maintained that it had no express

or implied contractual obligation to provide the actual test questions and

answers to Dr. Mensah for independent review. It offered evidence that its

testing methodology was reliable and attacked the truth of Dr. Mensah’s

representations about her academic record. NBME also substantiated that, at

Dr. Mensah’s request, it conducted score rechecks of her May 30, 2016 Step

-3- J-S28005-21

2 CK exam and her August 31, 2017 Step 1 exam and reported to Dr. Mensah

that it found no errors in scoring and that her scores remained unchanged.

Motion for Summary Judgment, 11/2/20, at Exhibit J.

On December 3, 2020, Eric Winter, Esquire entered his appearance on

Dr. Mensah’s behalf and filed a response in opposition to NBME’s summary

judgment motion and memorandum that same day. However, Dr. Mensah did

not append any supporting documentation to her response.

The trial court entered an order granting summary judgment in favor of

NBME on February 9, 2021, and the docket indicates that Pa.R.C.P. 236 notice

was sent electronically to counsel for all parties. Dr. Mensah filed an appeal

to this Court on March 8, 2021. By order entered March 8, 2021, the trial

court ordered Dr. Mensah to file a concise statement of errors complained of

on appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) within twenty-one days from the

entry of the order. The court also advised that failure to comply with the order

would result in the waiver of all issues on appeal. According to the docket,

Rule 236 notice of the Rule 1925(b) order issued on March 12, 2021, but Dr.

Mensah did not file a Rule 1925(b) concise statement. Consequently, the trial

court issued its Rule 1925(a) opinion on April 13, 2021, in which it

recommended that this Court dismiss the appeal as all issues were waived due

to Dr. Mensah’s failure to file a Rule 1925(b) concise statement.

Dr. Mensah filed a Motion to Reconsider and Issue Opinion Due to

Clerical/Computer Error on April 19, 2021. She represented therein that she

-4- J-S28005-21

was not served with the Rule 1925(b) order and asked the court to accept a

late-filed concise statement and issue an opinion. Id. at ¶ 15. By order dated

April 20, 2021, the trial court denied reconsideration and appended a

computer printout purporting to show that emails were sent to Attorney Winter

and Dr. Mensah on March 12, 2021. Order, 4/20/21, at Exhibit A.1

On July 20, 2021, this Court issued a rule directing Dr. Mensah to show

cause why the within appeal should not be dismissed due to the waiver of all

issues for failure to file a timely Rule 1925(b) concise statement. Counsel for

Dr. Mensah filed a timely response stating that he did not receive the emailed

Rule 1925(b) order and that Dr. Mensah received the email but could not

access the link containing the order. Counsel represented that Dr. Mensah

advised counsel of the email but when he checked the docket on March 15,

2021, it did not reflect any Rule 1925(b) order. Counsel maintained that he

1 As Dr. Mensah’s motion for reconsideration was filed in the trial court on April 19, 2021, more than thirty days after the order appealed from and after the filing of a notice of appeal, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to entertain it. See 42 Pa.C.S.

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