Opinion ID: 2089165
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Powers's inability to bring an action cognizable in court

Text: Planned Parenthood contends that Powers's unsubstantiated statement in her petition that she is presently unable to bring this action or cause it to be brought as she learned only Sunday that the Doctors give her a prognosis of having less than two months to live, is insufficient to satisfy the inability-to-bring-suit requirement of Rule 27(a)(1). We disagree. Although a bare assertion that the moving party is gravely ill is generally insufficient to satisfy the inability prong of Rule 27(a)(1), cf. Wright, Miller & Marcus, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil 2d § 2072 (1994) (discussing F.R.Civ.P. 27), it was sufficient in this case. Before Powers could bring a medical malpractice action against Planned Parenthood and the other expected adverse parties, she was required by statute to file a notice of claim setting forth her negligence claim and wait for the medical malpractice prelitigation screening panel to render a decision. See 24 M.R.S.A. § 2903 (1990 & Pamph.1995). [3] This prelitigation screening procedure is mandatory, unless the parties agree to proceed directly with a lawsuit. See 24 M.R.S.A. § 2853(5). [4] In the absence of such an agreement, potential plaintiffs in medical malpractice litigation are barred from pursuing their claims in court until the prelitigation screening panel has rendered a decision. Language elsewhere in the Health Security Act to the effect that a malpractice action commences with the filing of a written notice of claim, see 24 M.R.S.A. § 2853(1) (Pamph.1995) (A person may commence an action for professional negligence by: ... Filing a written notice of claim....), refers only to commencement for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations [5] and initiating discovery during the prelitigation screening process. The filing of a notice of a medical malpractice claim is not equivalent to the bringing of an action in court as that phrase is used in Rule 27. [6]