Opinion ID: 2331412
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Second Motion for Summary Judgment Regarding Fraudulent Concealment

Text: [¶ 4] In April 2001 the OSA defendants moved for a partial summary judgment on all the plaintiffs' claims that rely upon the six-year statute of limitations available following the discovery of a claim that a defendant has fraudulently concealed. [10] The OSA defendants did not move for a summary judgment on any other claims. [¶ 5] In their statement of material facts the OSA defendants state that they had, at some point, telephoned two of the plaintiffs (Farnum and Goddard) and urged them to come in for a checkup and had written fourteen other plaintiffs [11] with varying frequency also asking them to come in for an examination. [¶ 6] According to their statement of material facts, in January and February 1991, following the December 1990 FDA alert, the OSA defendants wrote to eight of the plaintiffs [12] informing them that: The Federal Drug Administration ... advises us that Proplast Implants have been associated with implant perforation, fragmentation and/or foreign body response which may result in progressive bone degeneration of the mandibular condyle and/or glenoid fossa .... [¶ 7] Of the eight, five plaintiffs [13] admit they either received the letter from the OSA defendants or otherwise learned of the FDA alert in 1991. Two plaintiffs [14] deny they ever received a notice of the FDA alert, and one plaintiff [15] heard from the FDA directly in 1992. When six [16] of the eight plaintiffs consulted with their OSA oral surgeons in response to a letter or otherwise, two of the OSA surgeons, Dr. Estabrooks and Dr. Collett, assured them that their symptoms were unrelated to the implants. [¶ 8] The OSA defendants state they sent another letter in October 1991 to the above eight plus an additional two plaintiffs [17] containing copies of the Vitek notice of bankruptcy. The letter provided: Our records show that you received a TMJ implant from Vitek. This letter is not to imply any damage in the material which was placed but only to inform you of our notification. [¶ 9] The OSA defendants gave the names of twelve plaintiffs to the Medic Alert Implant Registry in 1991 and 1992. A March 1993 list added two more plaintiffs. The OSA defendants wrote these fourteen [18] in May 1993 urging them to contact the office. In August 1993 the OSA defendants sent a letter to these fourteen plaintiffs containing an information packet. An article from the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was sent in November 1993 and follow-up letters were sent in 1997 and 1998. [¶ 10] The OSA defendants offer no evidence that they ever sent the five remaining OSA plaintiffs, [19] any notice. Brawn and Foster state that Dr. Fairbanks refused to acknowledge any connection between their implants and their symptoms. Nickerson said that Dr. Collett also dismissed the existence of any causal relationship between his symptoms and the TMJ implant. [¶ 11] In May of 2000 the OSA plaintiffs filed an opposition to the OSA defendants' motion for a partial summary judgment including their own statement of material facts as to which they contended that there existed genuine issues to be tried. The plaintiffs properly controverted certain statements of material fact [20] made by the OSA defendants, and did not sufficiently respond to others. Additionally, the plaintiffs presented further facts in support of their assertion that the OSA defendants had engaged in a pattern of conduct, which they asserted amounted to fraudulent concealment. In their statement of material facts, the plaintiffs reported thirteen instances of concealment, [21] the following three being representative:
As a result of receiving the FDA notice in March, 1991, she made an appointment to see Dr. Collett and at the appointment she showed him the letter she received from the FDA and showed him her hearing aid for her left ear. She told him about the pain and all of the symptoms she was having. She described the pain in both jaw joints, the squeaking joints, eye ticks, facial muscle pain, neck pain on both sides down to the shoulder, hearing loss, wearing a hearing aid in her left ear .... She is not certain if she talked to him about her headaches, but the headache pain was more severe and had changed, and the intense pain she experienced on both sides of her jaw in March 1991 was chronic. Dr. Collett's records say that she had few complaints and that the complaints she did have consisted of occasional headaches. That statement is adamantly denied by Bonnie. Dr. Collett goes on to indicate that there was good mandibular function with very little TMJ pain. Dr. Collett is not accurate in recording his clinical evaluation. She states that she had restricted opening of her mandible and could not move her jaw side to side. Dr. Collett indicates that there was no change in her occlusion and she indicates that is not accurate; that her teeth were out of alignment and she was not able to bring them together. Dr. Collett took x-rays of her TMJ's at that time and told her everything looked fine. Dr. Collett told her that the symptoms were caused by her not taking good enough care of herself. There was too much stress in her life and the Teflon disks had nothing to do with the symptoms. She discussed the possibility of removing the disks when she met with Dr. Collett in March 1991 and Dr. Collett told her the FDA is panicking. He said there were a few clients who were misusing their joints. He told her that she was fine and she did not need to have them removed. He did suggest x-rays in six months. Dr. Collett [said] that the implants would not fall out, would not break down, and would be there permanently for the remainder of her lifetime ....
She is very clear that she never received anything from Dr. Estabrooks' office about the implants, but she did receive a letter from the FDA in approximately January 1993 which precipitated her contacting Dr. Estabrooks immediately. She recalls Dr. Estabrooks telling her that the device would not break down, but that if her body rejected it, it might move and the wires breaking would show that the implant had moved. Dr. Estabrooks denied that the Teflon implants caused any problems. She disagrees with Dr. Estabrooks' records that reflect her March 1991 visit with the result of his sending her information about the FDA warnings, and she is very certain that is not true because she saw him in 1993 after receiving the warnings, she wanted to move immediately to have the implants removed before they could cause any significant further damage and the surgery was performed in 1993.... The problems she was having at that time which she thought might be related to the Vitek were severe bouts of sinusitis and bronchitis, severe headaches, joint pain throughout her body, fatigue, low grade fever, swollen glands. In 1991 or 1993 when she saw Dr. Estabrooks, he discouraged her from seeking a second opinion. Specifically, in January 1993, she mentioned Dr. Mitchell's name as one of the doctors who understood the problems with Teflon implants, and Dr. Estabrooks assured her that those articles were not true and that she needed to believe him. When she saw him in January 1993, he laughed off the FDA notice and said it was no big deal, and that once a year would be enough to take x-rays. He assured her that those articles were not true. He assured her there were not problems with the Teflon and that the FDA was just being overly cautious. Dr. Estabrooks says that he sent her material in 1991 from the FDA, but she did not receive the material. She doesn't understand why he didn't discuss with her the FDA concerns if he actually sent her that material. She saw him in 1991 and he never mentioned anything like that. He never discussed anything about the FDA until she received the FDA report in 1993 and contacted his office for an appointment.
She is shown Exhibit # 2, which is a letter from Dr. Estabrooks' office and recalls receiving that letter and indicates that she called his office to make an appointment upon receiving the letter. When she saw Dr. Estabrooks after making the appointment, he minimized the problem. He wanted to run the show and not have her ask any questions. She became very frustrated with Dr. Estabrooks because he continued to tell her that there was no problem. When she described her symptoms, he suggested that they might be caused from menopause or from the bad divorce she had a couple of years ago. He assured that the implant certainly wasn't causing her any problems. She does not remember when she received the letter from Dr. Estabrooks. She remembers the office appointment very clearly and remembers Dr. Estabrooks being very belittling. He continued to tell her not to worry about the implant. When she saw Dr. Estabrooks after the FDA notice was received, he was not honest with her about [the] discussions that took place [previously]. There are no instances of concealment in the statement of material facts for the remaining six OSA plaintiffs. [22] All of the plaintiffs, however, rely on the thirteen instances of concealment as evidence of a pattern of concealment as well as evidence of independent malpractice. [¶ 12] The OSA defendants replied to the plaintiffs' statement of material facts with a memorandum of law emphasizing their understanding of the law of fraudulent concealment: [P]laintiffs in their Opposition, do not deny that OSA spent hundreds of hours to identify, locate and attempt to warn plaintiffs. That uncontradicted fact is diametrically inconsistent with fraudulent concealment. On these facts a jury could not reasonably find that OSA fraudulently concealed the fact of injury from plaintiffs. [¶ 13] Although the OSA defendants assert that they had expended extraordinary efforts to warn their patients, they did not file an additional statement of material facts controverting the factual assertions supported by the plaintiffs' statement of material facts. [¶ 14] Although the OSA defendants had only moved for a partial summary judgment against the OSA plaintiffs on their fraudulent concealment claims, the Superior Court granted a summary judgment against all of the plaintiffs with respect to all their remaining claims of negligence under either the three-year, 24 M.R.S.A. § 2902, or the six-year statute of limitations, 14 M.R.S.A. § 859, and the plaintiffs filed this appeal.