Court Opinion

ID: 9651723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:33:08.848954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:38.277999
License: Public Domain

Justice BAER,
dissenting.
I believe that in the circumstances of this case the plaintiff, Garth Womer, substantially complied with the certificate of merit (COM) requirement, and that the Superior Court properly held that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to open the judgment of non pros entered for the defendant Jan Hilliker. Thus, I respectfully dissent.
Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3 requires that a plaintiff in a medical malpractice action file a COM with the complaint or within sixty days thereafter attesting that “an appropriate licensed professional has supplied a written statement that there exists a reasonable probability that the [medical service described] in the complaint fell outside acceptable professional standards *275and that such conduct was a cause in bringing about the harm.” Upon good cause, the court may extend the time for filing a COM past the initial sixty days. Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3. If the plaintiff fails to file a COM or motion to extend the time within sixty days, the defendant may praecipe for entry of a judgment of non pros against the plaintiff. Pa.R.C.P. 1042.6.
I completely agree with the majority that when a defendant takes a judgment of non pros under Pa.R.C.P. 1042.6 for failure to file a COM, a plaintiffs potential remedy lies in Pa.R.C.P. 3051, which authorizes the filing of a petition to open. Such a request, like a petition to open a default judgment taken for failure to respond to a complaint, is in the nature of an appeal to the equitable powers of the court. To gain relief, a plaintiff must show 1) the petition for relief from the judgment has been timely filed; 2) there is a reasonable explanation or legitimate excuse for the delay; and 3) there is a meritorious cause of action. Pa.R.C.P. 3051; Hutchison v. Hutchison, 492 Pa. 118, 422 A.2d 501 (1980). There is no dispute in this case that Womer satisfied prongs one and three of this test in that he filed his petition to open the judgment within one day of receiving notice of the judgment of non pros and asserted a meritorious cause of action. Thus, this case hinges upon whether there was a reasonable explanation or legitimate excuse for Womer’s failure to file a COM within sixty days.
The majority concludes that there was not. I respectfully disagree that such conclusion can be reached under the facts of this case. Womer filed a medical malpractice complaint against Hilliker on August 18, 2003. Pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3, he had until Friday, October 17, 2003, to file either a COM or a request for an extension of time. Within this time period, on October 8, 2003, during discovery, Womer forwarded to Hilliker an expert report detailing the manner in which Womer alleged that Hilliker failed to adhere to acceptable professional medical standards resulting in harm to Womer.1 *276Womer, acting through counsel, obviously believed that providing Hilliker with the expert report not only met the intent and spirit of Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3 and its requirement that a COM be filed, but exceeded that intent and spirit by furnishing not just a certificate that an expert report could be produced, but the report itself. As noted in the Superior Court’s opinion, the recent promulgation of Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3 provided scant guidance regarding the applicability of the doctrine of substantial compliance to the COM requirement, making these assumptions all the more reasonable. Under these circumstances, I find Womer’s belief that he had essentially complied with the COM requirement by forwarding the actual expert report to Hilliker within sixty days of filing the complaint a reasonable explanation and legitimate excuse for his actions, sufficient to open the judgment of non pros under Pa.R.C.P. 3051.
The timing of the events leading to this litigation provides further justification for equitable intervention. The COM was due to be filed on Friday, October 17, 2003. On Monday, October 20, 2003, the next business day, Hilliker filed for and obtained an entry of judgment of non pros pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 1042.6, notwithstanding that he had Womer’s expert report in his office. The next day, immediately upon receiving notice of the judgment of non pros, Womer filed a motion to open the judgment in accord with Pa.R.C.P. 3051, attaching his COM to his motion. Accordingly, this is not a case where a party disregarded the rule’s requirements. Rather, not only did Womer substantially comply with the COM requirement, but within hours of being put on notice that he mistakenly did not meet all the technical requirements of the rule, he moved to rectify that mistake and supplied the technically missing COM.
The trial court refused to open the judgment, rejecting Womer’s assertion of a reasonable explanation or legitimate *277excuse. We may only disturb a judgment of non pros if the trial court has committed an abuse of discretion. Sklar v. Harleysville Ins. Co., 526 Pa. 617, 587 A.2d 1386, 1387 (1991). An abuse of discretion occurs where “in reaching a conclusion the law is overridden or misapplied, or the judgment exercised is manifestly unreasonable.” Jung v. St. Paul’s Parish, 522 Pa. 167, 560 A.2d 1356, 1358 (1989). I agree with the Superior Court that this is such a case. The trial court abused its discretion by rejecting Womer’s reasonable explanation and legitimate excuse for not filing a COM with the court within sixty days. Womer promptly filed a COM upon the first indication that he had not complied with the COM requirement to the court’s satisfaction, the expert report provided to Hilliker revealed a meritorious claim, and Womer had a reasonable excuse for noncompliance with Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3. Therefore, logic, as well as conscience, a polestar of equity, compel a finding that the Superior Court properly held that Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3 should be liberally construed in order to secure the just determination of this potentially meritorious action, see Pa.R.C.P. 126, and that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to open the judgment.
Case law also supports this outcome. Indeed, the courts of this Commonwealth have historically been loathe to put a litigant out of court on a potential meritorious claim for missing a filing deadline due to lawyer oversight. “While, generally speaking, a litigant is bound by the actions or inactions of his counsel, there is authority for the proposition that when a plaintiff places his case in the hands of reputable counsel he will not be turned out of court if the delay complained of was almost entirely on account of neglect or oversight of his counsel.” Manson v. First Nat’l Bank, 366 Pa. 211, 77 A.2d 399 (1951). Accordingly, we have found that “errors of counsel ... which indicate an oversight rather than a deliberate decision not to defend, have been held to constitute sufficient legal justification to open a default judgment.” Jung, 560 A.2d at 1360. Thus, where the reasonable excuse proffered for failing to file timely a complaint was counsel’s secretary’s confusion and mistake, we held that the trial court *278abused its discretion in refusing to open a judgment of non pros. Id. Rather, we found that equity required the judgment of non pros be opened. Id.
Similarly, in a case where counsel’s quickly deteriorating health prevented him from timely filing a complaint, we found that the trial court abused its discretion in denying plaintiffs motion to strike judgment of non pros. Thorn v. Borough of Clearfield, 420 Pa. 584, 218 A.2d 298, 299 (1966). The diminished health of the attorney, followed by his eventual death, were equitable considerations sufficient to set aside a judgment of non pros and reasonably explained the delay in filing the complaint. Id. (“Appellants in this case should not be denied their day in court because of the diminished health of their counsel. Appellants had no way of knowing this case was not being diligently prosecuted and should not be made to suffer because of the health of their attorney”).
In accordance with this principle, in Moyer v. Americana Mobile Homes, Inc., 244 Pa.Super. 441, 368 A.2d 802 (1976), the Superior Court excused the failure to file a timely answer to a complaint where the delay was caused in part by the misplacing of the file in the attorney’s office:
It is well settled that the power to open a default judgment entered as a result of mistake or oversight of counsel is frequently exercised where the petition is promptly filed and a reasonable excuse for the delay is presented. Alexander v. Jesray Constmction Co., 237 Pa.Super. 99, 346 A.2d 566 (1975). The purpose of the rules in authorizing the entry of default judgments is to prevent a dilatory defendant from impeding the plaintiff in establishing his claim. The rules are not primarily intended to provide the plaintiff with a means of gaming a judgment without the difficulties which arise from litigation. Kraynick v. Hertz, supra[, 443 Pa. 105, 277 A.2d 144 (1971) ]; Slott v. Triad Distributors, Inc., 230 Pa.Super. 545, 327 A.2d 151 (1974). Therefore, in most cases such as the instant case, when judgment is taken on the twenty-first day after the filing of the complaint, the purpose of the rules is not served when a timely filed *279petition to open is denied. Such “snap” judgments are disfavored by the law.
Id. at 804-05. See also Nardulli v. John Carlo, Inc., 274 Pa.Super. 34, 417 A.2d 1238 (1979) (reversing the entry of a default judgment due to an attorney’s mistakes, stating that “errors of counsel which indicate an oversight rather than a deliberate decision not to defend, have been held to constitute sufficient legal justification to open a default judgment”).
In accordance with this point of view, in Almes v. Burket, 881 A.2d 861 (Pa.Super.2005), the Superior Court found that the plaintiff had proffered a reasonable excuse for failing to file the COM within sixty days sufficient to open the judgment of non pros pursuant to Pa.R.C.P. 3051, where counsel failed to have the COM filed after he left the office upon learning that his mother-in-law was gravely ill and then being faced with her subsequent death and burial on the day the COM was due. The Superior Court refused to find that where an attorney who forgets that the COM is due or who fails to take the steps to file it when faced with a family crisis is so derelict in his obligations that the oversight should not be excused. In support of this position, the Superior Court properly articulated the view that the law “is not so cold hearted as to demand vigilance of an attorney who experiences a death in the family or is so cold as to be unwilling to excuse failure under these circumstances.” Id. at 866. Similarly, the Superior Court in Harris v. Neuburger, 877 A.2d 1275 (Pa.Super.2005), affirmed the trial court’s excusal of a failure to file a COM within the time allowed by Pa.R.C.P. 1042.3 due to attorney misapprehension, where, in facts similar to the case sub judice, the attorney erroneously believed that he had substantially complied with the COM requirement by forwarding an expert report to the defendant within sixty days of filing the complaint.
In addition to this general case law granting equitable relief where counsel has failed with justification to take some action, there is also ample law in Pennsylvania abhorring the practice of entering a snap judgment in response to such a mistake. See Queen City Elec. Supply Co., Inc. v. Soltis Elec. Co., Inc., *280491 Pa. 354, 421 A.2d 174, 177-78 (1980) (“[W]e note that snap judgments taken without notice are strongly disfavored by the courts”); Kraynick v. Hertz, 443 Pa. 105, 277 A.2d 144, 147 (1971) (considering the equities and viewing the totality of the circumstances to hold that justice demanded opening the default judgment entered at 8:39 on the morning of the twenty-first day); Fox v. Mellon, 438 Pa. 364, 264 A.2d 623, 627 (1970) (“No one is happy with ‘snap’ judgments, probably including the lawyer who takes one”); Grone v. Northern Ins. Co. of New York, 388 Pa. 169, 130 A.2d 452 (1957) (upholding the striking of judgments that bore the stigma of being “snap”); Reilly Assocs. v. Duryea Borough Sewer Auth., 428 Pa.Super. 460, 631 A.2d 621, 624 (1993) (noting that snap judgments entered without notice are disfavored); Safeguard Inv. Co. v. Energy Service Assocs., Inc., 258 Pa.Super. 512, 393 A.2d 476, 477 (1978) (“Snap judgments taken without notice are strongly disfavored by the courts”).
Jung, 522 Pa. 167, 560 A.2d 1356, typifies all of these cases. There, exactly 20 days after filing a Praecipe for Rule to File Complaint upon the plaintiff, Defendant praeciped for and obtained a judgment of non pros. The next day, immediately upon receiving notice of the taking of judgment, the plaintiff filed a petition to open asserting that the delay was caused by counsel’s secretary’s confusion and mistake. The trial court denied the petition, and the Superior Court affirmed. This Court reversed, finding that the request to open a judgment of non pros is directed to the conscience of the court and required the balancing of equities supportive of the entry of judgment and the opening thereof. Id. at 1358. We then opined that “[a] court reviewing denial of a petition to open judgment by default must ascertain whether there are present any equitable considerations in the factual posture of the case which require that it grant to a plaintiff against whom the judgment has been entered an opportunity to have his ‘day in court’ and to have the cause decided upon the merits. In so doing, it acts as a court of conscience.” Id. at 1360.
In Jung, which is case remarkably similar to the case before us, this Court found petitioner’s excuse for unintentional dila*281tory conduct justifiable, and opened the snap judgment. Notwithstanding all of the foregoing precedent and the clear trend for literally decades in favor of trials on the merits and against the snap of default judgments, this Court, today, takes a giant step backward. Sadly, a plaintiff entitled to his day in court is being denied that opportunity, and a conscientious attorney who made an understandable, reasonable, and, importantly, wholly non-prejudicial mistake, finds his client out of court.
I believe that the Superior Court below as well as the many courts referenced herein have properly followed principles of modern jurisprudence in opening default judgments and judgments of non pros. To decide inconsistently with these many cases, including the Superior Court’s decision herein is to return to the unfortunate days of the past where counsel snatched judgments with impunity, avoiding facing the merits of a case. In 2006, it is inconceivable to me that this Court would take such action.
Justice CASTILLE joins this dissenting opinion.

. Hilliker asserts that he is a licensed ophthalmologist whereas the author of Womer’s report is an optometrist, and therefore the expert report may be legally insufficient. While this may or may not be true, *276the question of the report’s validity is simply not before us today. The majority opinion and this dissent are limited to the sufficiency of Womer's petition to open the judgment of non pros. If it had opened, the trial court certainly could have addressed the validity of the expert report as part of pre-trial proceedings.