Opinion ID: 5128872
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Scholz II

Text: Shortly after the Scholz I district court denied Scholz’s motion to reconsider its summary judgment ruling, Scholz started the administrative process anew by again filing SF-95 forms with the Milwaukee VA on July 11, 2019, and July 17, 2019. The administrative filing included claims related to Scholz’s informed consent, mental health treatment, and prescribed medications, along with claims alleging negligent production of records and misleading representations made No. 20-2163 11 by VA legal counsel on September 8, 2015, and October 15, 2015, that impacted the timeliness of Scholz’s first federal court suit. 3 Notably, the June 17, 2019, filing relies upon and attaches the declarations of Dr. Amsel and Dr. Johnson submitted to and rejected by the Scholz I court. Around two months after the Scholz I district court’s summary judgment ruling, Scholz filed Scholz II—another case in federal district court against the United States (and the Secretary of Health and Human Services). She subsequently filed an amended complaint that attached the administrative claims Scholz had filed on June 17 and July 11, 2019. This complaint contained six counts: medical negligence (Count I); pharmacy and oversight negligence (Count II); negligent failure to obtain informed consent (Count III); negligent failure to maintain and release accurate and complete medical records (Count IV); negligent hiring, training, supervision, and retention (Count V); and VA misrepresentations (Count VI). As to Counts I and II, Scholz argued that the “continuing” and “on-going” outpatient mental health treatment she received from the VA between “2011 through August 2018” was negligent. Specifically, she alleged “Defendant breached its duty of care and provided negligent mental health psychiatric treatment to the Plaintiff after her discharge from the Tomah VAMC in 2011 and continuing until she ceased psychiatric 3 Looking to the Scholz I administrative proceedings, the September 8, 2015, correspondence did not include a disclaimer that FTCA claims were governed by a combination of federal and state laws and VA attorneys could not provide state-specific advice, but the October 15, 2015, and February 18, 2016, correspondences did include such a disclaimer. This disclaimer specifically noted that “[s]ome state laws may limit or bar a claim or law suit.” 12 No. 20-2163 treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2018.” She also alleged that “Defendant’s failure to provide pharmacy and related oversight” caused her to “receive[] on-going harmful medications and combinations of medications from the Zablocki VAMC outpatient providers on a continuing basis during the period 2011 through August 2018.”As to Count III, Scholz argued that she never gave informed consent for the mental health treatment “during the years 2011 through 2018.” Count V also realleged essentially the same claim under a negligent supervision theory. As to Count IV, Scholz alleged that the government had violated various discovery rules related to the maintenance and timely disclosure of records in response to Scholz’s requests “during the period of 2013 through 2018.” Along these same lines, Count V alleged that defendant had “negligently breached its duty as to hiring, training, supervision and retention of employees necessary to provide Plaintiff with timely[,] accurate and complete copies of her medical records in response to Plaintiff’s on-going requests during the period 2013 through 2018.” For example, she explains on appeal, she was not given outpatient pharmacy records from 2011 to 2018 until two days before Scholz I discovery closed. She claimed as damages for these counts the deprivation of “her legal right to bring timely administrative claims and successfully pursue legal actions and remedies for negligent conduct of VA employees and agents,” the incursion of “substantial litigation costs and litigation related services of attorneys and others,” and the deprivation of “legal remedies based upon the statute of limitations.” As to Count VI, Scholz alleged that the VA had made various “misrepresentations” during the pre-suit administrative No. 20-2163 13 process that caused Scholz to “los[e] her right to pursue [a] federal court remedy for negligent treatment at the Tomah VAMC.” Specifically, she alleged that VA representatives told her on February 18, 2016, that she had 6 months to file a lawsuit but that after she filed Scholz I on August 8, 2016, the district court granted the government partial summary judgment on Scholz’s tort claims arising from Tomah VAMC treatment because the claims were time-barred by Wisconsin’s statute of limitations. Attacking the similarities between Scholz I and Scholz II, the government moved to dismiss Scholz’s amended complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) on the grounds that it violated the rule against claim splitting. The district court agreed, granted the motion, and entered judgment for the government on June 8, 2020. This appeal of the district court’s dismissal followed.