Opinion ID: 2279668
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Post-order prejudice to the plaintiff.

Text: The prejudice to Tinker which led to the judge's denial of the District's motion has been compounded by events which have occurred since the judge's order. Tinker alleged in his opposition to the District's motion for leave to amend its answer that he would have sought discovery, including the naming of an expert in terms of improper police procedures, if this defense had previously been raised. Plaintiff did forego the other avenues of relief based on defendant's answer which failed to raise the Statute of Limitations. Tinker contended that, in the event that the motion for leave to amend was granted, he should be allowed time for additional discovery and to name an expert in police practices and procedures. At the time that Tinker filed his opposition, it was still possible for him to litigate Counts I and III, although Tinker would obviously have been prejudiced in the preparation and presentation of these claims by the delay occasioned by the District's change of direction. After the judge denied the District's motion, however, there was no occasion to conduct the additional discovery, and Tinker, relying on the judge's ruling, promptly dismissed Counts I and III. The District takes the position that the two dismissed counts, now time-barred, see D.C.Code § 12-301(8) (1995), are out of the case. My colleagues, in a laudable effort to do equity, see Part IV of Judge Terry's opinion, ante at 65, and Judge Belson's opinion, ante at 70, n. 3, effectively reinstate these counts, but Tinker is now compelled to try to reconstruct, many years after the fact, a case requiring expert testimony. The District's initial failure to assert its limitations defense, and its abrupt change of strategy, thus resulted in the entry of an order which led Tinker to dismiss claims which he could have (and surely would have) promptly litigated on the merits if the District had invoked the statute of limitations (as to Count II) in its original answer. In my opinion, the plaintiff's loss of an opportunity to litigate, without undue delay, the negligent training and medical negligence claims, constitutes obvious, palpable prejudice. The trial judge could not and did not address the question of post-order prejudice to Tinker, for the relevant events occurred after her disposition of the District's motion. The judge did explicitly rule, however, that Tinker was equitably entitled to conclude (on the basis of the District's stipulation that expert testimony would not be required at the trial of Count II) that Count II would in fact be tried. In light of that holding, I find it inconceivable that, if the case were remanded to her, the judge would find unreasonable Tinker's reliance on the judge's ruling, in which the judge vindicated plaintiff's right to rely on that stipulation. See, e.g., Ouriaghli v. Moore, 621 A.2d 392, 395 (D.C. 1993). If we treat the issue as one for this court to decide in the first instance, I would likewise hold that Tinker's reliance on the judge's ruling was reasonable. The decision whether to allow a party to amend its answer is a highly discretionary one. Here, the District had made a belated and abrupt about-face which departed not only from the position taken in the District's original answer but also from the understanding upon which the stipulation between the parties was based. Knowing that Tinker had relied on the District's initial position, the judge declined to allow the District to amend. Tinker had no reason to believe that the trial judge's ruling on such a discretionary call would subsequently be vacated as erroneous, and I do not think we should second-guess his counsel's decision, in light of the judge's order, not to spend time and money on expert witnesses just in case.