Opinion ID: 1561199
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Open Courts Provision and Our Cases

Text: In the past 25 years, the legislature has enacted various provisions affecting claims, remedies and procedures for injured persons who seek redress in court. The challenges based in whole or in part on article I, section 14 have resulted in at least nine decisions whose principal, concurring and dissenting opinions offer a variety of analytical approaches for applying this open courts principle. Some of these cases seem irreconcilable. [13] These modern era cases start with State ex rel. Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hosp. for Children v. Gaertner, 583 S.W.2d 107 (Mo. banc 1979), where this Court invalidated a requirement that a medical malpractice plaintiff submit his or her claim to a professional liability board for a recommendation prior to filing a lawsuit in court. Even though the procedure invalidated in Cardinal Glennon did not ultimately deny access to the court, the procedural hurdle was held to be enough to violate article I, section 14. A brief review of the cases since Cardinal Glennon will illustrate some of the inconsistencies. [14] Schumer v. City of Perryville, 667 S.W.2d 414 (Mo. banc 1984), invalidated the requirement, as applied to a minor who was legally incapable of bringing his own action, of giving notice of his claim before suing a municipality. Similarly, Strahler v. St. Luke's Hosp., 706 S.W.2d 7 (Mo. banc 1986), held that the statute of limitations for actions against health care providers, as applied to minors, violated the open courts provision because it cut off a minor's claim before the minor was able to bring suit on his own behalf. In Simpson v. Kilcher, 749 S.W.2d 386 (Mo. banc 1988), this Court upheld the dram shop statute at issue in this case, which requires conviction of a liquor licensee as a pre-condition of bringing suit against a licensee. Harrell v. Total Health Care, Inc., 781 S.W.2d 58 (Mo. banc 1989), upheld a statute that exempted health service corporations from liability for injuries to patients based on the corporation's negligent selection of a surgeon. Mahoney v. Doerhoff Surgical Services, Inc., 807 S.W.2d 503 (Mo. banc 1991), upheld a statute requiring that a person bringing a claim against a health care provider file an affidavit stating that the plaintiff had obtained a health care provider's written opinion as to the merits of the claim. Blaske v. Smith & Entzeroth, Inc., 821 S.W.2d 822 (Mo. banc 1991), upheld a ten-year statute of limitation as to architects, engineers and persons furnishing construction services from liability as a result of a defective or unsafe condition of an improvement to real property. Goodrum v. Asplundh Tree Expert Co., 824 S.W.2d 6 (Mo. banc 1992), held granting of exclusive jurisdiction to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission to determine whether an employee's injuries are the result of an accident or intentional act does not violate the open courts provision. Adams v. Children's Mercy Hosp., 832 S.W.2d 898 (Mo. banc 1992), upheld statutory provisions imposing a cap on noneconomic damages, allowing future damages to be paid in installments, and requiring apportionment of fault to include a percentage allocated for released parties. Finally, and most recently, in Wheeler v. Briggs, 941 S.W.2d 512 (Mo. banc 1997), this Court upheld the medical malpractice statute of limitations as applied to a mentally incapacitated person. Some of the results seem incongruous; for example, Strahler , which invalidated the medical malpractice statute of limitations as applied to a minor, and Wheeler , which upheld the statute as applied to a mentally incompetent person. Despite the inconsistencies, there is a coherent line of reasoning that can be distilled from various opinions over the years that, if followed in this and subsequent cases, will ensure that article I, section 14 retains its vitality while permitting proper deference to legislative enactments. Put most simply, article I, section 14 prohibits any law that arbitrarily or unreasonably bars individuals or classes of individuals from accessing our courts in order to enforce recognized causes of action for personal injury. Wheeler, 941 S.W.2d at 515 (Holstein, C.J., dissenting) (emphasis added). The test of arbitrary or unreasonable is an important clarification of this Court's statement in Harrell, 781 S.W.2d at 62, that the right of access means simply the right to pursue in the courts the causes of action the substantive law recognizes. The line of analysis articulated by Judge Holstein in Wheeler is most appropriate for recognizing the power of the legislature to design the framework of the substantive law [15] by abolishing or modifying common law or statutorily based claims, yet keeping a meaningful right to a certain remedy where the law recognizes a cause of action. Moreover, this line of analysis is most consistent with the results and rationale of the precedents summarized above. Both the common law and our statutes recognize various legal injuries to person, property and character and provide remedies for such injuries. A statute, as noted, may modify or abolish a cause of action that had been recognized by common law or by statute. See Blaske, 821 S.W.2d 822, and Adams, 832 S.W.2d 898. [16] But where a barrier is erected in seeking a remedy for a recognized injury, the question is whether it is arbitrary or unreasonable. [17]