Optimum Care Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation, Inc. v. Arbella Mutual Insurance

2014 Mass. App. Div. 161, 2014 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 43
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedAugust 18, 2014
StatusPublished

This text of 2014 Mass. App. Div. 161 (Optimum Care Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation, Inc. v. Arbella Mutual Insurance) 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
Optimum Care Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation, Inc. v. Arbella Mutual Insurance, 2014 Mass. App. Div. 161, 2014 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 43 (Mass. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Fiandaca, J.

This matter is before the Appellate Division by way of an expedited appeal pursuant to Dist./Mun. App. Div. R., Rule 8A The motion judge allowed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted pursuant to Mass. R. Civ. P., Rule 12(b) (6). For the reasons set forth below we affirm the order of dismissal.

Background

The facts, taken from the pleadings, Iannacchino v. Ford Motor Co., 451 Mass. 623 (2008), and as relevant here are as follows.

The plaintiff, Optimum Care Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation, Inc., (Optimum), is a provider of medical services, including, as the name suggests, physical therapy and rehabilitation services. The defendant Arbella Mutual Insurance Company (Arbella), is an automobile insurer.

On January 18, 2012, Marcos Mendes was injured while he was either a passenger in a motor vehicle or a pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle was insured by Arbella. Mendes sought medical treatment from Optimum, and Optimum billed Arbella pursuant to the terms of the Massachusetts automobile policy’s Personal Injury Protection (PIP) beneSts provisions. Under the policy terms, Arbella was responsible for the first two thousand dollars of reasonable and necessary medical expenses, and Mendes’ health insurer, if any, would be asked to pay thereafter. If the health insurer could not or would not pay, then, upon billing, Arbella may have become responsible for, at most, an additional six thousand dollars. There are substantive and procedural conditions precedent to Arbella’s obligation to pay the additional PIP.

Arbella paid the first two thousand dollars billed by Optimum for care Optimum rendered to Mendes, but did not pay additional bills. The plaintiff filed its complaint alleging that it had submitted such bills to Arbella and had met the conditions precedent, that Arbella’s failure to pay was a violation of its obligations pursuant to the terms of the policy and G.L.c. 90, §34M (count one), that the failure to pay constituted an unfair or deceptive act or practice, in violation of G.L.c. 93A §11 (count two), that the failure to pay constituted an unfair claims settlement practice, in violation of G.L.c. 176D, §3, and so constituted a violation of G.L.c. 93A §2 (a) (count three), and, [162]*162finally, that Arbella’s conduct in failing to pay the claim constituted a restraint of trade in violation of G.L.c. 93, §§4 and 5 (count four).

At the outset we note that the parties disagree as to what is before this court. Arbella’s motion was styled “Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative For Summary Judgment,” and was supported by an affidavit from Arbella’s Claims Service Specialist. The judge endorsed the motion, “After healing, defendant’s motion to dismiss is allowed.” The clerk’s notice of the result, bearing the heading “Judgment of Dismissal,” a copy of which was included in the record before us, recites” [o]n the above action, by summary judgment, it is hereby ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by the Court, or judgment is hereby entered directly by the Clerk-Magistrate ... that this action be dismissed, and that the Plaintiff(s) named above taire nothing.” The defendant urges us to conclude thereby that the judge intended that summary judgment enter. We are unpersuaded.

The judge had before him both the motion to dismiss and the motion for summary judgment. They were before him in the alternative, and his own order, entered by his hand and under his signature as a marginal endorsement on the motion, allowed the motion to dismiss. The judge did not rule or act upon Optimum’s request for a continuance, made by motion pursuant to Rule 56(f), and the lack of such ruling is consistent with, and lends support to, our determination that the judge acted on the Rule 12(b) (6) motion to dismiss. The parties disagreed at argument before us as to whether the judge considered documents beyond the complaint in ruling upon the motion. The judge surely knew the law, and, had he determined to consider the other submissions of the defendant, he would have acted upon the motion for summary judgment. That he chose to dismiss the action rather than render judgment for either party, and the absence of clear evidence that the judge considered such submissions in ruling on the motion, compels us to resolve the matter in favor of the plain language used by the judge. Accordingly our review is limited to whether the allowance of the motion to dismiss was error.

Discussion

Our review of the dismissal pursuant to Rule 12(b) (6) is de novo. See Eigerman v. Putnam Invs., Inc., 66 Mass. App. Ct. 222, 225 (2006); Ockerman v. VA Software Corp., 69 Mass. App. Ct. 771, 774 (2007). To conduct such review “[w]e take as true ‘the allegations of the complaint, as well as such inferences as may be drawn therefrom in the plaintiff’s favor....’ Blank v. Chelmsford Ob/Gyn, P.C., 420 Mass. 404, 407 (1995).” Marram v. Kobrick Offshore Fund, Ltd., 442 Mass. 43, 45 (2004), quoting Warner-Lambert Co. v. Execuquest Corp., 427 Mass. 46,47 (1998).

Count four presents an insurmountable problem for the plaintiff here. It seeks relief for an alleged violation of G.L.c. 93, specifically, that the facts pled make out a case of unlawful restraint of trade, in violation of G.L.c. 93, §4, and/or an attempt to monopolize a part of trade, in violation of c. 93, §5. The plaintiff avers that it brings those claims pursuant to G.L.c. 93, §12.

That provision, G.L.c. 93, §12 provides a private right of action for any violation of chapter 93, and directs that “[t]he superior court shall have jurisdiction of actions brought under” that section. Id. The issue of subject matter jurisdiction is, of course, before us. See Mass. R. Civ. R, Rule 12(h)(3) (“Whenever it appears by suggestion of a party or otherwise that the court lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter, the [163]*163court shall dismiss the action”); Id,., Reporter’s Notes.

In Ravnikar v. Bogojavlensky, 438 Mass. 627 (2003), the Supreme Judicial Court had occasion to consider the issue of district court jurisdiction in the context of a claim for relief made pursuant General Laws c. 214, §1B, the statute providing a right of action for the tort of invasion of privacy. That statute provided that “[t [he superi- or court shall have jurisdiction in equity to enforce such right and in connection therewith to award damages.”

In Ravnikar, the matter had initially been dismissed by the superior court judge for lack of jurisdiction because, the judge found, there was no reasonable likelihood of recovery over $25,000. The plaintiff re-filed in the district court, and, after a judgment for plaintiff, the defendant appealed arguing that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the invasion of privacy claim because of the explicit statutory grant of jurisdiction in the superior court. The Supreme Judicial Court disagreed, reasoning that the legislative intent in crafting the one-trial system was to increase the efficiency of the trial court by allowing actions where there was no reasonable likelihood of recovery over $25,000 to be resolved expeditiously in the district court. Id. at 634. Because the claim for invasion of privacy was included with others over which the district court unquestionably possessed subject matter jurisdiction, the district court could decide that claim as well.

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2014 Mass. App. Div. 161, 2014 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/optimum-care-physical-therapy-rehabilitation-inc-v-arbella-mutual-massdistctapp-2014.