Fields v. Legacy Health System
| Citation | 413 F.3d 943 |
| Decision Date | 22 June 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-35587.,No. 03-35386.,03-35386.,03-35587. |
| Parties | George FIELDS, personal representative of the Estate of Laura Fields, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LEGACY HEALTH SYSTEM, an, Oregon Corporation, dba/Legacy Laboratory Services. Defendant-Appellee. George Fields, personal representative of the Estate of Laura Fields; Estate of Laura Fields, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. LEGACY HEALTH SYSTEM, an Oregon Corporation, dba/Legacy Laboratory Services. Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) |
Ron Perey, Carla Tachau Lawrence, and Doug Weinmaster, Law Office of Ron Perey, Seattle, WA, and Jeffrey P. Foote, Portland, OR, for the plaintiff-appellant.
Lindsey H. Hughes, Keating Jones Bildstein & Hughes, P.C., Portland, OR, for the defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon; Garr M. King, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-03-00048-KI.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Washington; Thomas S. Zilly, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-02-02548-TSZ.
Before: GRABER, GOULD, and BERZON, Circuit Judges.
This consolidated appeal involves wrongful death actions filed in two different federal district courts sitting in diversity. Acting as personal representative of the estate of his late wife, Laura Fields, George Fields brought an action for wrongful death against Legacy Health System ("Legacy") in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. The complaint alleged that Legacy negligently caused Laura Fields' death by failing to diagnose her cervical cancer from a Pap smear, and sought damages for Raven Fields, a minor child of George and Laura Fields. Subsequently, George Fields filed an identical action in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. The Oregon federal district court applied Oregon's statutes of limitations and repose to dismiss George Fields' case with prejudice, denied him leave to amend his complaint, and denied his motion to certify state constitutional questions to the Oregon Supreme Court. Thereafter, the Washington federal district court dismissed George Fields' Washington action based on Oregon's statutes of limitations and repose, as well as on collateral estoppel grounds.
George Fields appeals these rulings, He first contends that the district courts erred in applying Oregon law instead of Washington law. In the alternative, he argues that if Oregon law applies, we should either: (1) apply Oregon's disability tolling provision to toll Oregon's wrongful death statute of limitations; (2) apply the "escape clause" in the Uniform Conflict of Laws-Limitations Act ("UCLLA") to allow his Washington suit to proceed; (3) strike down Oregon's statutes of limitations and repose because they violate the United States Constitution; or (4) certify to the Oregon Supreme Court whether Oregon's statutes of limitations and repose violate the state constitution.
We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm the district courts' choice of Oregon law and reject George Fields' contentions that we can toll Oregon's wrongful death statute of limitations or apply the UCLLA's "escape clause" to permit his Washington suit to go forward. We also hold that the Oregon statutes of limitations and repose do not violate the United States Constitution or the Oregon Constitution.1
On August 3, 1994, Laura Fields had a Pap smear collected and analyzed at the Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Defendant-appellee Legacy is the non-profit corporation that owns this hospital. On August 4, 1994, a hospital employee analyzed Laura Fields' Pap smear and concluded that it was The employee also noted that Laura Fields was pregnant. Raven Fields was born on March 19, 1995.
In 1995, the Fields family moved to Washington. On March 4, 1996, Laura Fields had another Pap smear and cervical biopsy. These procedures showed that she had cervical cancer. In 1997, Laura and George Fields filed a negligence claim against Legacy in the Circuit Court for the State of Oregon, and the parties eventually reached a settlement agreement whereby damages were paid in exchange for Laura and George Fields' release of "any and all claims" on behalf of themselves and their "heirs, executors and assigns."2
Laura Fields died on January 16, 2000, while a resident of Washington. Acting as personal representative of Laura Fields' estate, George Fields brought a diversity action against Legacy for wrongful death, bringing suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington on December 23, 2002. He also filed an identical action in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon on January 13, 2003. Legacy moved to dismiss the Oregon action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and the Oregon federal district court granted its motion, dismissing George Fields' claim with prejudice on the ground that the suit was barred by Oregon's statute of limitations3 and also was barred by Oregon's statute of repose.4 The Washington federal district court decision followed, applying Oregon's statute of limitations and Oregon's statute of repose to dismiss George Fields' Washington action with prejudice. George Fields timely appealed the dismissals from both of the federal district courts, and we consolidated the cases for the purposes of appellate review because of the parallel issues.
We first address George Fields' argument that the district courts erred in applying Oregon's statutes of limitations and repose to dismiss his claims because, he argues, "Washington has by far the most compelling interest in having its wrongful death statute applied to this case." Federal courts sitting in diversity must apply "the forum state's choice of law rules to determine the controlling substantive law." Patton v. Cox, 276 F.3d 493, 495 (9th Cir.2002).5 Although the Oregon district court relied on grounds that we find unpersuasive, we affirm its decision to apply Oregon law because our choice of law analysis under Oregon law leads us to the same conclusion that Oregon law governs. We agree with the Washington district court's analysis and affirm its choice of Oregon law.
Oregon and Washington use the same bifurcated approach in dealing with conflict of law issues. Both states' laws require us to make a threshold determination that there is an actual conflict between the law of the forum and that of another state. Portland Trailer & Equip., Inc. v. A-1 Freeman Moving & Storage, Inc., 182 Or.App. 347, 49 P.3d 803, 806 (Or.Ct.App.2002); Rice v. Dow Chem. Co., 124 Wash.2d 205, 875 P.2d 1213, 1216 (Wash.1994). If no material conflict exists between the laws or interests of the forum and the other state, we apply forum law. Portland Trailer, 49 P.3d at 806; Rice, 875 P.2d at 1216. If there is a conflict, we proceed to the next step of the analysis and apply the forum's choice of law test. Portland Trailer, 49 P.3d at 809; Rice, 875 P.2d at 1217.
The parties here identified a conflict between Washington and Oregon's wrongful death statutes of limitations.6 The Oregon district court accepted this conflict as one that satisfied the threshold requirement under Oregon's choice of law rules and proceeded to apply Oregon's choice of law test. The Washington district court, however, identified a conflict between the states' statutes of repose and conducted its choice of law analysis from that starting point.
The Oregon district court erred in determining that a difference between Oregon's statute of limitations and that of another state can raise an actual conflict for the purposes of Oregon's choice of law analysis. Oregon, like Washington, has adopted the UCLLA, which states in pertinent part:
(1) Except as provided by ORS 12.450, if a claim is substantively based:
(a) Upon the law of one other state, the limitation period of that state applies; or
(b) Upon the law of more than one state, the limitation period of one of those states, chosen by the law of conflict of laws of this state, applies.
(2) The limitation period of this state applies to all other claims.
Or.Rev.Stat. § 12.430; see also Wash. Rev. Code § 4.18.020 (same). Under this provision, the initial determination courts must make in cases involving disputes over the relevant statute of limitations is which state's substantive law forms the basis of the plaintiff's claims. Cropp v. Interstate Distrib. Co., 129 Or.App. 510, 880 P.2d 464, 465 (1994); Rice, 875 P.2d at 1216. Once the court decides which state's substantive law governs, that state's statute of limitations applies. Cropp, 880 P.2d at 465; Rice, 875 P.2d at 1216. In other words, UCLLA states like Washington and Oregon treat statutes of limitations as procedural for the purposes of conflict of law analyses.
On the other hand, Washington treats statutes of repose "as part of the body of a state's substantive law in making choice-of-law determinations."7 Rice, 875 P.2d at 1217. Here, Oregon has a statute of repose that extinguishes all actions based on a claim of medical malpractice that are not brought within "five years from the date of the treatment, omission or operation upon which the action is based." Or.Rev.Stat. § 12.110(4). In DeYoung v. Providence Medical Center, 136 Wash.2d 136, 960 P.2d 919, 926 (wash. 1998), however, the Washington State Supreme Court invalidated Washington's medical malpractice statute of repose. Because Oregon has an applicable statute of repose while Washington does not, there is a valid conflict between Oregon and Washington law that requires us to apply Washington's choice of law test. See Rice, 875 P.2d at 1217.
Oregon has yet to decide whether statutes of repose are substantive or...
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