Opinion ID: 1507962
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dr. Malloy's Dismissal

Text: Ms. Hackelton first contends that she was the real party in interest under Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 17(a) because she was appointed the administrator of her mother's estate. She asserts that even assuming arguendo that she was a nonexistent plaintiff at the time she filed her original complaint and not yet the real party in interest, she did file an amended complaint thirteen days later in her formal capacity as administrator. She further claims that after she was appointed administrator, she was the only person who had standing to file the wrongful-death suit, and that she did so. In addition, she urges that Dr. Malloy waived his objection to her standing as the real party in interest by waiting five years and three months after the filing of the original and amended complaints to raise this issue. Because Dr. Malloy's defense to Ms. Hackelton's wrongful-death claim before she was appointed administrator is the same defense made to Ms. Hackelton's claim after her formal appointment as administrator, she asserts that there was clearly no prejudice to Dr. Malloy. As a third point, Ms. Hackelton argues that our prior case law regarding standing is inapplicable to this case, and the trial court's reliance on those cases was error. She contends that is because in those cases the statute of limitations had run prior to the entry of the amended pleadings, while in her case at the time she filed her amended complaint and her addendum to the complaint, the statute of limitations had not run. Moreover, she claims that her amended complaint constituted a new action, which was timely filed within the time frame of the statute of limitations. Therefore, the trial court's decision to dismiss her action because the amended complaint could not relate back to the original complaint was erroneous and should be reversed. Dr. Malloy responds that summary judgment and his dismissal were proper because Ms. Hackelton was not the real party in interest under Rule 17(a) when she filed the original complaint pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. §§ 16-62-101 and 102 (1987). He adds that because Ms. Hackelton was not the real party in interest, she lacked standing to sue, and her original complaint was a nullity. He points out that in Davenport v. Lee, 348 Ark. 148, 72 S.W.3d 85 (2002), this court held that a nonexistent complaint cannot be corrected or salvaged. Dr. Malloy further contends that he never waived his objection to Ms. Hackelton's standing to sue. He emphasizes that Dr. Yelvington raised the objection to Ms. Hackelton's standing before trial. He further claims that Rule 17(a) cannot preserve Ms. Hackelton's complaint, when her complaint never existed. In this connection, he states that it is illogical to assert that he waived his defense to a void claim. We first consider the judgment in this case entered by the trial court. Though a motion for summary judgment is referred to in the judgment, the complaint against Dr. Malloy was dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Accordingly, we view this matter as an appeal from a grant of a motion to dismiss. Our standard of review in such appeals has recently been stated: When reviewing a circuit court's order granting a motion to dismiss, we treat the facts alleged in the complaint as true and view them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Preston v. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 354 Ark. 666, 128 S.W.3d 430 (2003). In testing the sufficiency of a complaint on a motion to dismiss, all reasonable inferences must be resolved in favor of the complaint, and all pleadings are to be liberally construed. See id. Further, if there is any reasonable doubt as to the application of the statute of limitations, this court will resolve the question in favor of the complaint standing and against the challenge. State v. Diamond Lakes Oil Co., 347 Ark. 618, 66 S.W.3d 613 (2002). Brewer v. Poole, 362 Ark. 1, 7, 207 S.W.3d 458, 461 (2005). Rule 17(a) of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure reads, in pertinent part, that [e]very action shall be prosecuted in the name of the real party in interest. To determine who is properly classified as the real party in interest in a wrongful-death claim, we look to the applicable statute: Every action shall be brought by and in the name of the personal representative of the deceased person. If there is no personal representative, then the action shall be brought by the heirs at law of the deceased person. Ark.Code Ann. § 16-62-102(b) (1987). In St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co. v. Circuit Court of Craighead County, Western Div., 348 Ark. 197, 73 S.W.3d 584 (2002), all but one of the deceased's heirs-at-law filed a pro se complaint prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations and claimed medical malpractice. Later, the appointed administrators, who consisted of some of the plaintiffs who had filed the original complaint, filed an amended complaint after the statute-of-limitations period had expired. This court held that the pro se plaintiffs had no standing to sue when they filed the original complaint. Even though the plaintiffs who filed the original complaint and those who filed the amended complaint were substantially the same persons, they were not the same parties and, thus, were not acting in the same capacities. We noted that while they did not have standing to sue when they filed the original pro se complaint, they did have standing when they filed the amended complaint as appointed administrators. But we added, [u]nfortunately, the statute of limitations had expired in the meantime. Id. at 205, 73 S.W.3d at 589. We went on to say in St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co . that [a]n action for wrongful death brought by a plaintiff in his capacity as an administrator pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 16-62-102 involves neither the same action, nor the same plaintiff as in a survival action brought by the same person in his individual capacity pursuant to Ark.Code Ann. § 16-62-101. Id. We held that because the amended complaint in that case operated to substitute out all the plaintiffs, and put in their place entirely new plaintiffs, it was not an amendment, but rather was a new suit. Id. at 206, 73 S.W.3d at 589; see also Rhuland v. Fahr, 356 Ark. 382, 155 S.W.3d 2 (2004), Ark-Homa Foods, Inc. v. Ward, 251 Ark. 662, 664, 473 S.W.2d 910, 911 (1971) (noting that [i]t is well settled that where an action is brought in the name of a non-existing plaintiff, an amendment of complaint by substituting the proper party to the action as plaintiff will be regarded as the institution of a new action as regards the statute of limitations.) In the case at hand, it is clear that under § 16-62-102(b), Ms. Hackelton did not have standing to sue when she filed the original complaint on October 2, 1997, because she had not yet been appointed the administrator of Mrs. Ray's estate and was not the sole heir. She was, however, appointed the administrator of the estate six days later. As a consequence, she was deemed to be a new party when she filed the amended complaint seven days later on October 15, 1997. As this court explained in St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co ., individual heirs at law are entirely distinct legal persons from . . . appointed administrators, and thus different parties. 348 Ark. at 205, 73 S.W.3d at 589. Based on this court's reasoning in St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co ., the filing of an amended complaint by a new party constituted the commencement of a new suit. Because the new suit was initiated prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations period, there was no need for the suit to relate back to the original complaint filed on October 2, 1997, under Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c). The only question that then remains is whether Ms. Hackelton's amended complaint can incorporate by reference the contents of her initial complaint, which she did not have standing to bring. We recently addressed a related question in Brewer v. Poole, supra . In Brewer, this court held that where the plaintiff who filed the wrongful death suit did not comply with § 16-62-102(b) due to the lack of all the heirs-at-law as parties to the lawsuit, the original complaint was a nullity. See id. This court then said: [w]here the original complaint is a nullity, Rules 15 and 17 [of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure] are inapplicable because the original complaint never existed; thus, there is no pleading to amend and nothing to relate back. Id. at 15, 207 S.W.3d at 466. Applying Brewer to the instant case, we conclude that the original complaint filed by Hackelton was a nullity because Hackelton did not have standing to file the complaint as she was not the appointed administrator nor was she the sole heir at law at that time. Having said that, in the case before us, unlike Brewer, we have a new lawsuit commenced by a proper party plaintiff within the time period of the statute of limitations which incorporates by reference the allegations made in the original complaint. Furthermore, Rule 10(c) of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure expressly provides that statements in a pleading can be adopted by reference in another pleading. That is precisely what Ms. Hackelton did with her amended complaint. She incorporated statements from her original complaint into her amended complaint by reference and, thus, allowed them to function as allegations in a new suit. This is categorically different from an attempt to amend an original complaint with a new party plaintiff and have that amendment relate back to the original complaint under Rule 15(c) after the statute-of-limitations period has passed. Relation-back, of course, was the issue in Brewer v. Poole, supra . In short, although for purposes of relation back under Rule 15, the original complaint is a nullity because Ms. Hackelton lacked standing to sue at the time she filed it, the original complaint remains a document setting out allegations satisfying the fact-pleading requirements for a complaint set out in Ark. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(1). The facts pled in the original complaint may be adopted by reference under Ark. R. Civ. P. 10(c) into the timely amended complaint. Rule 15 and relation back under that rule are simply not relevant to adoption by reference under Rule 10. We reverse the trial court's dismissal of Dr. Malloy and remand for further proceedings.