Opinion ID: 1975422
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dismissal of the Original Complaint

Text: When the Wagners voluntarily dismissed their original complaint against Dr. Kobrine without prejudice, the running of the statute of limitations on their claims was not tolled. See Sayyad v. Fawzi, 674 A.2d 905, 906 (D.C.1996); York & York Constr. Co. v. Alexander, 296 A.2d 710, 712 (D.C.1972). To preserve the Wagners' ability to rename Dr. Kobrine as a defendant after the statute had run, the stipulation of dismissal therefore had to provide expressly that he would not assert the statute as a defense to a new complaint against him. The trial court found, however, that the stipulation did not prevent Dr. Kobrine from invoking the statute as to the Wagners' informed consent claim, because that claim was not brought on the basis of newly discovered evidence. The Wagners have abandoned any challenge to that ruling, which in any event we do not find to be either clearly wrong or without evidence to support it. D.C.Code § 17-305(a) (1997). The three-year statute of limitations had run by the time the Wagners first asserted their informed consent claim against Dr. Kobrine. The original complaint against him having been dismissed, there was no earlier pleading extant to which the claim could relate back under Rule 15(c)(2). While the order of Judge Christian granted the Wagners leave to file their amended complaint against Dr. Kobrine, it did not reinstate, nunc pro tunc to its filing date, the original complaint that the Wagners had filed against him. [17] We therefore affirm Judge Rankin's decision to grant Dr. Kobrine's motion in limine.