New England Sports Therapy, Inc. v. Metlife Auto & Home

2013 Mass. App. Div. 67, 2013 WL 1729128, 2013 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 14
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedApril 3, 2013
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2013 Mass. App. Div. 67 (New England Sports Therapy, Inc. v. Metlife Auto & Home) 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
New England Sports Therapy, Inc. v. Metlife Auto & Home, 2013 Mass. App. Div. 67, 2013 WL 1729128, 2013 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 14 (Mass. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Hand, J.

The plaintiff-appellant, New England Sports Therapy, Inc. (“NEST”), provides physical therapy services. Defendant-appellee Metlife Auto and Home (“Metlife”) provides automobile insurance to Massachusetts drivers. NEST filed this action pursuant to G.L.c. 90, §34M to recover $5,549.26 in personal injury protection (“PIP”) benefits claimed as part of the treatment costs for fourteen patients insured by Metlife under standard Massachusetts automobile insurance policies. The parties agreed to try the case jury waived, stipulating that all of the patients at issue had been injured in automobile accidents; that all were covered by Metlife’s automobile insurance policies; that all treatment was medically necessary; that all PIP claims were submitted timely; to the amounts of NEST’s billings for each patient; and that Metlife had paid some, but not all, of NESTs bills for each patient.

General Laws c. 90, §34A, defining an insurer’s PIP obligation, provides, in relevant part:

“Personal injury protection,” provisions of a motor vehicle liability policy or motor vehicle liability bond which provide for payment to the named insured in any such motor vehicle liability policy, the obligor of any motor vehicle liability bond, members of the insured’s or obligor’s household, any authorized operator or passenger of the insurer’s or obligor’s motor vehicle including a guest occupant, and any pedestrian struck by the insured’s or obligor’s motor vehicle,... of all reasonable expenses incurred within two years from the date of accident for necessary medical, surgical, x-ray, and dental services... (emphasis added).

The sole issue at trial1 was whether NEST could prove its entitlement under §34M [68]*68to the amounts of the disputed balances. See Salafia v. Trust Ins. Co., 2000 Mass. App. Div. 242, 244, citing Shah v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 2000 Mass. App. Div. 210, and Sanabia v. Travelers Ins. Co., 1999 Mass. App. Div. 46, 47 (claimant has burden of proving reasonable value of provider’s services). With respect to its claims under §§34A and 34M, the burden was on NEST to prove that the disputed charges represented “reasonable expenses” as that term is used in the statute. See id. (when parties dispute PIP insurer’s failure to pay billed expense in full, “[i]t is ... the plaintiffs burden to prove that the reasonable value of the services rendered exceeded the payment by the insurer”). To the extent that the trial court in this case found the billings reasonable, NEST was entitled to recover from Metlife for the outstanding balances. If NEST failed to carry its burden of persuasion, however, Metlife was entitled to judgment in its favor.

After trial, the court ruled against NEST, issuing the following written finding:

After a jury waived trial... I find that pursuant to MGL c90 sec 34A and 34M, the reimbursement made to the plaintiff by the defendants is reasonable and fair and I hereby find for the defendant on counts IV and V, counts I, II, and III were waived by the plaintiff.

While the parties submitted timely requests for findings of fact and rulings of law,2 the court declined to act on any of these requests, and instead issued the finding quoted above. The instant appeal arises from the wording of the court’s finding.

1. There is no merit in NEST’S initial argument that the trial judge’s failure to rule on each of its requests for rulings was tantamount to the erroneous denial of those [69]*69requests, which posited correct statements of law. The cases cited by NEST for that now obsolete legal proposition3 predate the 2008 abolition of Mass. R. Civ. P., Rule 64A. It was Rule 64A that prescribed requests for rulings of law as the principal method of obtaining legal rulings in a District Court jury-waived civil trial, thereby preserving a basis for appellate review by separating a trial court’s unwritten findings of fact from its rulings of law. Campbell v. Toner, 2006 Mass. App. Div. 121, 122; Cooperstein v. Turner Bros. Constr., Inc., 1992 Mass. App. Div. 249, 250-251. Under that prior practice, a trial judge was generally obligated to rule on each Rule 64A request filed. For that reason, a failure to rule on requests, without more, was deemed the equivalent of a ruling denying the request. However, even under that now-repealed Rule 64A procedure, a trial judge who elected to make voluntary findings and rulings was not required to rule on each individual request for ruling of law. Where “the thought process which led to the [judge’s] decision [was] fully articulated ... responses to requests for rulings [were] superfluous.” Lynn v. Nashawaty, 12 Mass. App. Ct. 310, 315 (1979). See also Lee v. Premier Ins. Co., 2009 Mass. App. Div. 151 n.1.

The repeal of Rule 64A and the amendment of Mass. R. Civ. R, Rule 52(c), both effective March 1, 2008, changed the method of preserving for appellate review a question of law in a District Court jury-waived civil trial. Pursuant to Rule 52(c), a party must now file proposed findings of fact and rulings of law before the beginning of closing arguments. Upon receipt of the same, the trial court is required to “find the facts specially and state separately its conclusions of law.” Rule 52(c). See generally Davis, Malm & D’Agostine v. Lahnston, 82 Mass. App. Ct. 254, 255 (2012); Advanced Spine Ctrs., Inc. v. Commerce Ins. Co., 2011 Mass. App. Div. 212, 214 n.5. Under current Rule 52(c) procedure, “the court does not rule on each request but prepares its own findings and rulings, without a requirement to reference the findings and rulings so proposed” by the parties. Heinzer v. Xarras, 2010 Mass. App. Div. 218, 219. Therefore, in the present case, the lack of a specific disposition of each of NEST’S requests for rulings of law did not constitute an erroneous denial of the legal principles set forth in the requests.

2. Appellate review under Rule 52 focuses on the “correctness of any rulings and whether the findings are supported by the evidence.” Id. The rule envisions findings that are “clear, complete, and accurate.” Millenium Equity v. Mahlowitz, 73 Mass. App. Ct. 29, 36 (2008). Where, as in the instant case, the parties have stipulated to almost all of the relevant facts, “extensive detail” is not required; the findings and rulings would be sufficient if they fully “articulate [d] the essential grounds for a decision ... ensuring] that a judge has dealt fully and properly with all the issues, and that the parties and reviewing court may be fully informed as to the bases for the judge’s decision” (citations omitted). Willis v. Board of Selectmen of Easton, 405 Mass. 159, 161-162 (1989). See also Anthony’s Pier Four, Inc. v. HBC Assocs., 411 Mass. 451, 483 (1991) (judge must “articulate essential grounds of his decision; he is not required to itemize every component of that decision” [citations omitted]).

[70]*70The single finding and ruling made by the trial judge in this case was that “the reimbursement made to the plaintiff by the defendant is reasonable and fair.” The parties’ contrasting interpretations of this language indicates a possible ambiguity as to the legal basis on which the court made its decision in favor of Metlife.

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Bluebook (online)
2013 Mass. App. Div. 67, 2013 WL 1729128, 2013 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-england-sports-therapy-inc-v-metlife-auto-home-massdistctapp-2013.