Court Opinion

ID: 9635252
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:43:40.272816+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:54:19.003257
License: Public Domain

McAULIFFE, Judge,
dissenting.
I cannot agree with the majority because I find the conclusions reached with respect to the federal case too stringent and those reached with respect to the state case too lax.
The Plaintiffs in this case complied fully with Maryland’s statutory requirement that they submit their malpractice claims to nonbinding arbitration before bringing a civil action in court. When they were unsuccessful before the arbitrators, the Plaintiffs timely filed and served the required notice of rejection of the award. This set the stage for the filing of a civil action—a process that became *654somewhat complicated by the Plaintiffs’ tactical decision1 to sue the doctor in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland, but to sue the doctor’s alleged principal in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
With respect to their claim against the doctor, counsel for the Plaintiffs followed the applicable statute and rules of procedure to the letter. They commenced the action by filing the required notice in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County within thirty days of service of the award upon them, and within thirty days of that filing, they filed and served their complaint against Doctor Levitt.
The Plaintiffs ran into trouble, however, in their attempts to decipher the meaning of the statute and the rules with respect to the procedural requirements for proceeding against Kaiser-Georgetown in a federal court. Their confusion is understandable. It is not attributable to any apparent lack of diligence or understanding on their part, but rather to the facts that in passing the statute the Maryland Legislature overlooked the possibility that this situation would arise, and we overlooked it in approving the implementing rules of procedure. Section 3-2A-06 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Maryland Code (1974, 1984 Repl.Vol.) provides that the party rejecting the award “shall file an action in court to nullify the award____” Section 3-2A-01, which sets forth specific definitions for this brief subtitle, provides in subsection (c) that “ ‘[cjourt’ means a circuit court for a county.” Rule BY2 of the Maryland Rules of Procedure provides that an action to nullify an award “shall be commenced by filing notice of the action with the clerk of the court____”
Counsel for the Plaintiffs’ next step was a prudent one— they filed the notice of action against Kaiser-Georgetown in *655the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland. At the same time, and to prevent any possible confusion in the minds of their opponents or the court, they filed a “line” in the circuit court explaining their decision to proceed against Doctor Levitt in the circuit court and against Kaiser-Georgetown in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Within the required thirty days, the Plaintiffs filed a complaint against Kaiser-Georgetown in the federal court. They apparently did not file an additional notice of action with the clerk of the federal court, nor did they refer to the arbitration award in their federal complaint.
The majority adopts a “common sense” interpretation of § 3-2A-01(c) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, so that the words “ ‘[cjourt’ means a circuit court for a county” are understood to mean “ ‘[cjourt’ means a circuit court for a county or any other court having jurisdiction.” I can appreciate the need for this judicial interpretation of the statute, but I cannot accept the notion that the Plaintiffs should have understood and anticipated this interpretation. The Plaintiffs were painstakingly careful in their attempt to comply with the requirements of our statute and rules, and although their efforts were not precisely consistent with the interpretation we have now announced,2 the inconsistency is of no substantial importance because all the parties have been given all the notice that the statute and rules contemplated, and all filings have been timely made.
*656The majority implies that the failure to include a notice of action in the federal filing may constitute a fatal departure from Maryland procedural requirements. Under the circumstances of this case, I disagree. The required use of the two-step process to initiate a judicial action following arbitration is solely to accomodate the situation of a health care provider who wishes to nullify an award. The two-step process serves no useful purpose where the claimant is the party rejecting the award, except possibly to inform the court that the Plaintiff has submitted to arbitration before bringing the action. That allegation could as well be made in the complaint, and its omission is one that ordinarily may be corrected by amendment. Maguire v. Federal Crop Ins. Corp., 181 F.2d 320 (5th Cir.1950); 2A Moore’s Federal Practice, § 9.04 (2d ed. 1984). The -parties and the Director of the Health Care Arbitration Office received timely notice of precisely what actions the Plaintiffs were taking when they were served with copies of the notice and the “line” that Plaintiffs had filed in the circuit court. It is not our place to pass upon the sufficiency of the federal complaint, but I would make it clear that Plaintiffs have committed no fatal error as far as the Maryland procedural requirements are concerned. They at least substantially complied with those requirements.
Turning to the action taken by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, I agree that the circuit judge was in error in dismissing with prejudice the action against Kaiser-Georgetown, and in confirming the arbitration award in favor of that Defendant. In their attempt to assidously follow the direction of the Maryland statute by filing a notice of action against Kaiser-Georgetown in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, the Plaintiffs unwittingly began an action against Kaiser-Georgetown in Maryland. Without delving into the question of whether the Plaintiffs might properly pursue, or at least initiate, their claim against Kaiser-Georgetown simultaneously in two jurisdictions, I would simply note that which is obvious and that *657which Plaintiffs themselves spelled out quite clearly—that they had no intention of bringing their judicial claim against Kaiser-Georgetown in Maryland. Under these circumstances, the circuit judge should have dismissed the action against Kaiser-Georgetown without prejudice, thus clearing the docket in the circuit court and allowing the claim against Kaiser-Georgetown to proceed in the federal court.
I am disturbed by the majority holding that it is within the discretion of the trial judge to allow the Plaintiffs to amend their action in Maryland to include a complaint against Kaiser-Georgetown. Assuming, without conceding, that an amendment might in some circumstances be allowed to permit the filing of a complaint against a defendant where nothing resembling a complaint had been filed within thirty days after the filing of a notice, I believe it would be improper to permit that amendment here. The Plaintiffs, for their own tactical reasons, elected to proceed against Kaiser-Georgetown in a federal court in the District of Columbia. This was not an oversight. The Plaintiffs did exactly what they intended to do, and they announced their election to the world. They deliberately allowed the thirty days to expire without filing a complaint against Kaiser-Georgetown in Maryland, and they should not at this late date be permitted to change their mind and amend the Maryland action to include Kaiser-Georgetown. I agree that amendments to pleadings should be freely allowed to serve the ends of justice, but I would not permit such an amendment of a notice by the addition of a complaint more than thirty days after the filing of the notice, and particularly I would not permit such amendment where the failure to timely file the complaint was the product of a considered decision on the part of the Plaintiff.
I would reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County and remand the case with instructions to dismiss without prejudice the Plaintiffs’ action against Kaiser-Georgetown.

. Plaintiffs’ counsel likely were influenced by the holding of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in Kaiser-Georgetown Community Health Plan, Inc. v. Stutsman, 491 A.2d 502 (D.C.App.1985).

. The majority holds, and I agree, that the correct procedure to be followed to accomplish a multiple court filing following arbitration is to file a notice of action and complaint (or a complaint that includes the notice) against a defendant in the court in which the plaintiff elects to proceed against that defendant, and to refrain from filing a notice as to any defendant in a court where the plaintiff does not intend to proceed against that defendant. In this case, therefore, the notice filed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County should not have included Kaiser-Georgetown, and the notice against Kaiser-Georgetown should have been filed in the federal court, or included in the complaint filed in that court.