Opinion ID: 1889840
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Missing Expert

Text: [¶ 18] The Hospital first argues that it is entitled to judgment because the Gafners failed to designate an expert before the panel. If this matter had been pending in the Superior Court on the Gafners' complaint, that argument would be persuasive. See Hamor, 483 A.2d at 722-23. [¶ 19] Because, however, the matter had not yet reached the complaint phase of the proceedings, the court was only authorized to consider affirmative defenses or other similar issues. See 24 M.R.S.A. § 2853(5). Evidentiary failure is not an affirmative defense, and we conclude that it does not fall within the other issues anticipated by the language of section 2853(5). See id. (allowing certain preliminary legal affirmative defenses or issues [to] be litigated prior to submission of the case to the panel). The preliminary legal issues envisioned by that section are those that will be dispositive without the need for a review of the quality of the evidence regarding professional negligence expected to be presented to the panel. [¶ 20] Nonetheless, the Hospital argues that the Superior Court should be allowed to consider its motion for summary judgment on this issue in order to avoid duplicative and wasteful proceedings. Implicit in the Hospital's argument is the assumption that the Gafners will not be entitled to further discovery in the complaint phase of the proceeding. Hence, it argues, a plaintiff who fails to present persuasive facts before the panel will be precluded from augmenting those facts in the Superior Court. [¶ 21] The Hospital's argument on this point is premature. Whether the Gafners may designate Dr. Russian or any other expert in the Superior Court has yet to be decided by that court. Until the matter has been presented to the Superior Court after the filing of the complaint, and until the Superior Court has ruled on any discovery disputes that may be presented to it, that court cannot determine whether the Gafners' evidence will withstand a motion for summary judgment. [¶ 22] We decline the Hospital's invitation to collapse the process into a unitary event. The panel screening process is intended to be just that  an independent mechanism for the initial screening of claims of professional negligence. The process was not intended to result in final, binding determinations on a plaintiff's evidence. Some duplication is inherent in the process chosen by the Legislature to address perceived problems in the litigation of professional negligence claims, although the potential for duplication will be some-what alleviated by the operation of 24 M.R.S.A. § 2857(3) (Pamph.1998), which makes it clear that discovery conducted during the panel process will be deemed part of discovery in subsequent court actions. [¶ 23] In summary, the Maine Health Security Act does not confer upon the Superior Court the authority to finally resolve factual issues related to allegations of professional negligence that are presented to a prelitigation screening panel. Although the panel chair or the parties may refer certain preliminary matters to the Superior Court before the ultimate issues are submitted to the panel, the panel alone has the authority under the Act to decide initially whether the plaintiffs have met their burden of proof in demonstrating that the healthcare practitioner or provider deviated from the applicable standard of care and whether that deviation proximately caused the plaintiffs' injuries. See 24 M.R.S.A. § 2855(1)(A)-(B). [¶ 24] Therefore, to the extent that the Hospital moved for summary judgment on the basis of the Gafners' failure to timely designate an expert for purposes of the panel hearing, such a motion may not be presented to the Superior Court until a complaint has been filed in the Superior Court and that court has addressed the designation of experts and other discovery matters in the separate context of the Superior Court proceeding.