Court Opinion

ID: 9588503
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:34:57.967494+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:59.205840
License: Public Domain

SENIOR JUSTICE POFF,
with whom JUSTICE COMPTON joins, dissenting.
I cannot join in this opinion. The majority reasons that “Title 17 of the Code of Virginia gives circuit courts jurisdiction to resolve cases and controversies involving torts” and that “[mjedical malpractice claims are tort claims”. Consequently, the majority concludes that the notice requirement and the 90-day injunction against suit are not conditions precedent to jurisdiction of the courts but merely procedural rules imposed upon a remedy for a particular type of tort.
But what the General Assembly grants it can sometimes withdraw altogether or qualify in part. For example, an action by an employee against his employer claiming damages for injury or death by accident arising out of and in the course of employment once was a tort action within the subject-matter jurisdiction of the circuit and corporation courts. In the enactment of the Workers’ Compensation Act, the General Assembly withdrew from the courts and vested in the Industrial Commission jurisdiction over such claims. Although the courts continue to have jurisdiction over some actions for injuries and death suffered by an employee at work, that jurisdiction is definitively limited. See, e.g., McBride v. Metric Constructors, 239 Va. 138, 387 S.E.2d 780 (this day decided).
Similarly, in the enactment of the Medical Malpractice Act, the General Assembly withdrew from the courts subject-matter jurisdiction over all actions claiming damages for the tort of medical malpractice filed sooner than 90 days following notice of claim to health care providers. Stated differently, the legislature qualified the subject-matter jurisdiction previously vested in the courts by limiting that jurisdiction to actions filed after expiration of 90 days following notice of claim. No matter how stated, the change made by the General Assembly was a quantified reduction in the scope of subject-matter jurisdiction reposed in the courts. Although effected by a notice requirement and a time constraint, the *175legislative change was substantive - not merely procedural as the majority maintains.1
In support of its conclusion that the trial court erred in dismissing Morrison’s action for want of jurisdiction, the majority attempts, unsuccessfully, to distinguish Glisson v. Loxley, 235 Va. 62, 366 S.E.2d 68 (1988). In that case, Sybil Glisson filed a two-count motion for judgment alleging, in count one, a breach of contract by Dr. Loxley and, in count two, a battery committed upon her by Dr. Loxley. Dr. Loxley filed a motion to dismiss, contending that “the court was without jurisdiction to hear the case” because the motion for judgment was “based in fact upon medical negligence” and Glisson had failed to give notice of claim as required by Code § 8.01-581.2; “[t]he trial court agreed with the defendant and sustained the motion.” Id. at 63-64, 366 S.E.2d at 69.
Although this Court ruled that Code § 8.01-581 does not apply to contract claims, we went on to hold that “the trial court did not err in dismissing the second count.” Id. at 69, 366 S.E.2d at 72 (emphasis added). Therefore, as regards the tort count, we affirmed the trial court’s determination, stated expressly in the judgment appealed from, that it was “without jurisdiction to hear the matter.”2
In Virginia, the doctrine of stare decisis is more than a mere cliche. That doctrine plays a significant role in the orderly administration of justice by assuring consistent, predictable, and balanced application of legal principles. And when a court of last resort has established a precedent, after full de*176liberation upon the issue by the court, the precedent will not be treated lightly or ignored, in the absence of flagrant error or mistake.
Selected Risks Insurance Co. v. Dean, 233 Va. 260, 265, 355 S.E.2d 579, 581 (1987) (citation omitted).
There was no “flagrant error or mistake” in Glisson. In fact, its holding was entirely consistent with our prior treatment of Code § 8.01-581.2. In Baker v. Zirkle, 226 Va. 7, 307 S.E.2d 234 (1983), we held:
As a result of Code § 8.01-581.2, a medical malpractice claimant is absolutely forbidden from filing an action until 90 days after notification to the health care provider . . .
226 Va. at 13, 307 S.E.2d at 236 (emphasis added). Again, in Horn Adm’r v. Abernathy, 231 Va. 228, 343 S.E.2d 318 (1986), we held:
Under Code § 8.01-581.2 (Repl. Vol. 1977) a claimant has no right to bring such an action unless he gives the health care provider written notice of his claim. [3]
231 Va. at 231, 343 S.E.2d at 320 (emphasis added). In Glisson, we merely held explicitly what twice we had held implicitly. We remained faithful to those precedents in an opinion rendered only a year ago. Edwards v. City of Portsmouth, 237 Va. 167, 170, 375 S.E.2d 747, 749 (1989) (affirming judgment sustaining “special plea of lack of jurisdiction” for non-compliance with Code § 8.01-581.2).
“[I]n a well ordered society it is important for people to know what their legal rights are, not only under constitutions and legislative enactments but also as defined by judicial precedent . . .” Myers v. Moore, 204 Va. 409, 413, 131 S.E.2d 414, 417 (1963). By failing to follow controlling precedent, the majority undermines stability and predictability in the law.
*177In my view, the trial court was correct in its ruling that compliance with Code § 8.01-581.2 is jurisdictional.4 If Morrison’s first motion for judgment was void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, there was no predicate for the nonsuit. In such case, the statute of limitations ran before Morrison filed her second motion for judgment. Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment entered below.

 The rules of this Court requiring notice of the filing of a transcript of the proceedings in a trial court are rules governing the procedure to be followed in perfecting an appeal to this Court. “But they are jurisdictional, and failure to comply therewith will result ... in dismissal, either before or after appeal is awarded. . . . [Dismissal will continue to be the price of failure to comply with mandatory rule provisions.” Towler v. Commonwealth, 216 Va. 533, 535, 221 S.E.2d 119, 121 (1976) (emphasis added).

 Although it is well settled that we will affirm a trial court when it has reached the right result for the wrong reason, we usually say so when we have done so. See, e.g., Large v. Clinchfield Coal Co., 239 Va. 144, 387 S.E.2d 783 (this day decided); Frye v. Commonwealth, 231 Va. 370, 389, 345 S.E.2d 267, 281 (1986); Thims v. Commonwealth, 218 Va. 85, 93, 235 S.E.2d 443, 447 (1977); Legum Furniture v. Levine, 217 Va. 782, 788, 232 S.E.2d 782, 786 (1977); Kessler v. Doctors Hospital, 212 Va. 497, 304, 185 S.E.2d 43, 47 (1971); Robbins v. Grimes, 211 Va. 97, 100, 175 S.E.2d 246, 248 (1970). Consequently, the majority’s tacit suggestion in a footnote that we applied the “right result, wrong reason” rule sub silentio in Glisson is wholly unpersuasive.

 To say that a plaintiff has no right to pursue an action is to say, as well, that a court has no jurisdiction to consider the action. Thus, in Plummer v. Landmark Communications, 235 Va. 78, 366 S.E.2d 73 (1988), having said that when a “plaintiffs remedy is under the [Workers’ Compensation] Act, the plaintiff has no right to pursue [an] action at law [emphasis added]”, id. at 84, 366 S.E.2d at 75, we held that the trial court “properly sustained defendant’s plea to the jurisdiction”, id. at 87-8, 366 S.E.2d at 77.

 In dicta, the majority mentions alternative penalties courts may impose in future cases of non-compliance with Code § 8.01-581.2 and suggests that “[t]he proper sanction . . . will depend on the circumstances of each case.” Even if compliance is, as the majority contends, merely “a mandatory procedural requirement” rather than a jurisdictional imperative as I think, dismissal should “continue to be the price of failure to comply with mandatory rule provisions” as we said in Towler.