Miller v. Crescent City Health Care Center

24 So. 3d 891, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1347, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1000
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 28, 2009
DocketNo. 2008-CA-1347
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 24 So. 3d 891 (Miller v. Crescent City Health Care Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Crescent City Health Care Center, 24 So. 3d 891, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1347, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1000 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY, Judge.

| jThis is a nursing home medical malpractice action. The plaintiff, John Miller, appeals from the trial court’s decision sustaining a dilatory exception of prematurity and a peremptory exception of prescription filed by the defendant, Crescent City Health Services (“Crescent City”). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s ruling sustaining the prescription exception, reverse its ruling sustaining the prematurity exception, and remand for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed in this opinion.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On September 17, 2003, Mr. Miller filed a complaint requesting a medical panel review pursuant to La. R.S. 40:1299.41, et seq. In his complaint, Mr. Miller alleged that Crescent City’s medical malpractice that formed the basis for his complaint arose out of the following facts: “On September 30, 2001, Vivian Miller, wife of John Miller, died as a result of negligent nursing care provided to her by Crescent City Health Care Center.” Thereafter, a medical review panel convened. The panel members unanimously determined that the evidence did not ^support the conclusion that Crescent City failed to meet the applicable standard of care as charged in the complaint.1

[893]*893On June 1, 2007, Mr. Miller filed the instant suit. According to the petition, Mr. Miller’s now deceased wife, Vivian Miller, was admitted to Crescent City’s nursing home on April 5, 2001, and resided there until September 17, 2001, when she died. The gist of the allegations of the petition is that Crescent City was negligent in providing nursing care to Mrs. Miller during the time she was in its care.

Crescent City responded by contemporaneously answering the petition and filing exceptions of prematurity and prescription. Crescent City asserted that it was a qualified health care provider and thus entitled to the protections of the Medical Malpractice Act, La. R.S. 40:1299.41, et seq. (the “MMA”). It further asserted that several of the causes of action or complaints raised in Mr. Miller’s petition were not brought before the medical review panel as required by the MMA and thus were premature. La. R.S. 40:1299.47. It still further asserted that several of Mr. Miller’s claims were prescribed at least in part.

On November 30, 2008, a hearing was held on the exceptions. On January 9, 2009, the trial court rendered a judgment sustaining the exceptions for the reasons orally stated at the hearing. On January 22, 2008, the trial court rendered written reasons for judgment.

Is At the November 2008 hearing, Crescent City’s attorney acknowledged that insofar as Mr. Miller’s petition asserted malpractice claims that were reviewed by the panel it was timely filed. However, as to newly alleged malpractice claims — claims that were not raised in the complaint filed in the panel proceeding — Crescent City argued that those claims were premature and prescribed. Although the trial court sustained the prematurity exception, it declined to decide if those newly asserted malpractice claims were prescribed.2 The trial court further found that certain of the claims asserted in the petition were tort claims not subject to the MMA. The trial court found that those tort claims, which are subject to a one year prescriptive period, had prescribed. The trial court thus sustained Crescent City’s prescription exception as to the tort claims and dismissed those claims with prejudice. The trial court denied Mr. Miller’s motion for new trial. This appeal followed.3

DISCUSSION

On appeal, Mr. Miller’s sole assignment of error is that the trial court erred in granting the exception of prematurity and the exception of prescription because the record does not contain sufficient evidence to support that ruling.

Prescription Exception

14Although Mr. Miller assigned as error the trial court’s granting of both the exception of prematurity and prescription, [894]*894he briefed only the exception of prematurity. Nonetheless, we affirm the trial court’s ruling sustaining Crescent City’s exception of prescription as to the tort claims. Mrs. Miller died on September 30, 2001, but Mr. Miller failed to file suit until June 8, 2007, well beyond the one one-year prescriptive period. We thus find the trial court correctly sustained the prescription exception as to the tort claims.4

Prematurity Exception

The gist of Mr. Miller’s argument is that Crescent City failed to introduce evidence at the hearing on the exceptions to establish the fact that Mr. Miller’s petition included allegations that were not raised in his medical malpractice complaint (request for review). This argument is based on the assumption that an exception of prematurity must be sustained unless the plaintiffs petition tracks the language in the complaint submitted to the medical review panel. This assumption is belied by the nature of a medical review panel proceeding.

By its nature, a medical review panel proceeding encompasses the plaintiffs’ entire substantive cause of action against a medical provider for the alleged malpractice-negligent provision of services. A medical review panel proceeding is a non-judicial, pre-suit filtering process that is a prerequisite for filing a claim against a qualified health care provider in court. Everett v. Goldman, 359 So.2d 1256 (La.1978); LSA-R.S. 40:1299.47(A)(1).5 Simply stated, the process is |ficommenced by the claimant filing a request for review or proposed complaint.6 Based on the evidence before it, the panel renders a decision regarding whether the evidence supports a finding that the medical provider breached the applicable standard of care.7

[895]*895|fiThe difference between a request for review to initiate a panel proceeding and a petition to initiate a lawsuit was addressed by the Louisiana Supreme Court in Perritt v. Dona, 02-2601, 02-2603 (La.7/2/03), 849 So.2d 56.8 The Court stated that a request for review “is not required to be a fact pleading with the specificity that may be required of a petition in a lawsuit; rather, the claim need only present sufficient information for the panel to make a determination as to whether the defendant is entitled to the protection of the Act.” Perritt, 02-2601, 02-2603 at p. 13, 849 So.2d at 65. A concurring justice further elaborated that although the MMA refers to the request for review as a “proposed complaint” and thus suggests the need for a claimant to set forth the standard of review, “such a necessity is tempered by the nature of the non-judicial setting and the differing roles of the experts on the review panel and the lay persons bringing the claims.” Perritt, 02-2601, 02-2603 at pp. 3-4 (Weimer, J., concurring), 849 So.2d at 68. Justice Weimer further noted that under Louisiana’s system of fact pleadings it is unnecessary to plead a legal duty or the standard of care. Perritt, 02-2601, 02-2603, at p. 4 (Weimer, J, concurring), 849 So.2d at 68 (citing La. C.C.P. art. 854, cmt. (a)). By analogy, Justice Weimer explained the same is true for the medical review complaint:

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Miller v. Crescent City Health Care Center
24 So. 3d 891 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
24 So. 3d 891, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1347, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1000, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-crescent-city-health-care-center-lactapp-2009.