Maine Medical Center v. Cote

• Decision Date: 11 July 1990
• Citation: 577 A.2d 1173
• Parties: MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, et al. v. Karen L. COTE and Beau Cote.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 1173

577 A.2d 1173

MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, et al. v. Karen L. COTE and Beau Cote.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued May 29, 1990.

Decided July 11, 1990.

Gerald Petruccelli (orally), Petruccelli, Cox & Martin, Robert Hanson, Norman, Hanson & Detroy, Ernest Babcock, Friedman & Babcock, Portland, for plaintiffs.

Kenneth W. Hovermale, Elizabeth Mulvey (orally), Bornstein & Hovermale, Portland, for defendants.

George W. Beals, Portland, for amicus curiae Maine Trial Lawyers Ass'n.

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and ROBERTS, WATHEN, GLASSMAN and CLIFFORD, JJ.

GLASSMAN, Justice.

The defendants, Karen Cote and her minor son Beau Cote, appeal the judgment on the pleadings entered in the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Alexander, J.) in favor of the plaintiffs, Maine Medical Center, Christiane Northrup, M.D., and Allan C. McLean, M.D., in their action for a declaratory judgment that the Cotes' medical malpractice claims against the plaintiffs were barred by the provisions of 24 M.R.S.A. § 2902 (1990). ¹ We find no error in the record and affirm the judgment.

In September 1988, the Cotes served the plaintiffs with notices of claims, pursuant to 24 M.R.S.A. § 2903 (1990), alleging that due to the plaintiffs' negligent medical care Beau Cote has suffered from cerebral palsy since his birth on August 28, 1979. The plaintiffs filed this action seeking a declaration that the Cotes' claims were time-barred. After a hearing, the court granted the plaintiffs' motion for a judgment on the pleadings and also granted their motion to quash the Cotes' subpoena of the plaintiffs' liability insurers and ordered the protection of those insurers from the Cotes' inquiry as to their financial condition. The stated purpose of the Cotes' proposed inquiry was to demonstrate that these insurers had misled the Legislature concerning the necessity for the enactment of tort reforms in 1986. The Cotes now appeal, challenging both the declaratory judgment and the protective order.

In 1986, the Legislature repealed former section 2902 and replaced it with the present section as part of a tort reform package. See P.L.1985, ch. 804. The present section 2902, effective August 1, 1988, modifies a longstanding statutory recognition that the statutes of limitations applicable to various actions were tolled during the minority of a claimant. 14 M.R.S.A. § 853 (Supp.1989). ² The Cotes challenge section 2902 on several constitutional grounds.

The Cotes first contend that section 2902 violates article I, section 19, the "open courts" provision of the Maine Constitution. Section 19 states that "[e]very person, for an injury inflicted on the person or the person's reputation, property or immunities, shall have remedy by due course of law; and right and justice shall be administered freely and without sale, completely and without denial, promptly and without delay." ³ The Cotes assert that this constitutional provision is an independent, substantive guarantee of specific rights. They argue that section 2902 effectively forecloses a child under the age of twelve years at the time of the accrual of an action for the alleged professional negligence of a health care provider from ever bringing an action in the child's own name, thus violating this substantive guarantee.

The open courts provision means the courts must be accessible to all persons alike without discrimination, at times and places designated for their sitting, and afford a speedy remedy for every wrong recognized by law as remediable in a court. We do not construe section 19 as prohibiting reasonable limits on the time within which a claimant must seek redress in the courts. The absence of a tolling provision for a legal disability thus making a claimant dependent on another to assert his rights does not per se offend article I, section 19 of the Maine Constitution. See McCutchen v. Currier, 94 Me. 362, 47 A. 923 (1900) (disability arising after accrual of cause of action barred by two-year statute of limitations). The only issue of constitutional significance is whether such time limits are so unreasonable as to deny meaningful access to the judicial process. As long ago as 1874 we stated that:

The power of the legislature to shorten the period at the expiration of which the limitation bar shall take effect provided they allow a reasonable time for parties to bring suit before their claims shall be deemed barred by the new enactment, and do not absolutely deprive the [claimant] of his remedy under color of regulating it, has been too often recognized by courts of the highest respectability to be questioned now.

Sampson v. Sampson, 63 Me. 328, 333 (1874); see also Miller v. Fallon, 134 Me. 145, 148, 183 A. 416, 417 (1936) ("It is ... well settled that statutes of limitation may be made applicable to existing rights and causes of action provided a reasonable time is allowed for the prosecution of claims thereon before the right to do so is barred.").

Here, section 2902 did not foreclose Beau Cote's access to the courts. His alleged claim accrued on August 28, 1979, the date of his birth. Section 2902 was enacted on April 26, 1986 to be effective August 1, 1988. In fact, Beau Cote had had seven years prior to the enactment of section 2902 in which to institute an action. Section 2902 extended that time in excess of two years. We hold that the time limits provided in section 2902 do not deny meaningful access to the judicial process by a child under the age of twelve years at the time of the accrual of an action for alleged negligent medical care. Accordingly, the Cotes' contention that section 2902 violates article I, section 19 of the Maine Constitution must fail.

The Cotes also contend that section 2902 violates the equal protection clause of the Maine Constitution because it unfairly discriminates against minors with a claim of medical malpractice as opposed to minors with a claim based on other types of negligence. The Cotes argue that this classification is arbitrary and cannot be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose. We have previously stated that "[t]he State in its fullest exercise of sovereignty has the inherent power to pass regulations designed to promote the public health, safety and welfare," Shapiro Bros. Shoe Co. v. Lewiston-Auburn Shoeworkers Protective Ass'n, 320 A.2d 247, 254 (Me.1974), and that "the regulatory means must bear a rational relationship to the evil sought to be corrected." National Hearing Aid Centers, Inc. v. Smith, 376 A.2d 456, 461 (Me.1977). The stated purpose of the tort reform bill was "to expedite the resolution of medical liability claims in order to decrease the high costs of medical professional liability insurance." L.D.2065, Statement of Fact (112th Legis.1986).

A statute of limitation, by definition arbitrary, is enacted to provide potential defendants with the assurance of eventual repose from claims made stale by the passage of time. See Langevin v. City of Biddeford, 481 A.2d 495, 498 (Me.1984); Myrick v. James, 444 A.2d 987, 995 (Me.1982). It is of necessity a potent element in any reform of tort law. We have heretofore recognized that "[t]he production of evidence and records necessary to meet [medical] malpractice claims becomes progressively more difficult with time." Tantish v. Szendey, 158 Me. 228, 230, 182 A.2d 660, 661 (1962). As a court, we must assume that section 2902 represents the Legislature's considered judgment concerning the most effective manner of decreasing the premium costs of medical professional liability insurance. "It is not necessary that the methods adopted by the legislature be the best or wisest choice. No matter how much the court might have preferred some other procedure, if the measure is reasonably appropriate to accomplish the intended purpose we must give it effect." National Hearing Aid Centers, 376 A.2d at 461. Applying this analysis, we are unable to say that section 2902 is irrational as it relates to the stated legislative purpose. ⁴

Alternatively, the Cotes urge us to apply a "strict scrutiny" analysis to section 2902. In federal equal protection analysis, strict scrutiny is reserved for "suspect classifications" such as race, alienage, see, e.g., Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967) (race); Graham v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 365, 91 S.Ct. 1848, 29 L.Ed.2d 534 (1971) (alienage), or "fundamental interests" like a franchise right or the right to fair representation. See e.g., Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663, 86 S.Ct. 1079, 16 L.Ed.2d 169 (1966) (right to vote); Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962) (right to fair representation). The Cotes argue that the ability to pursue a common law negligence action is a fundamental right, and the State therefore has the burden of demonstrating a compelling need for section 2902's classification of minors by the type of negligence action. This argument fails because we have never held, nor do we now hold, that the pursuit of a negligence action is a fundamental right.

We also observe that the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution has never been interpreted to require that state statutes of limitations be tolled during minority. In Vance v. Vance, 108 U.S. 514, 2 S.Ct. 854, 27 L.Ed. 808 (1883), the United States Supreme Court held that the federal constitution "gives to minors no special rights beyond others," and "it [is] within the legislative competency" of states "to make exceptions in their favor or not." Id. at 521, 2 S.Ct. at 859. Tolling statutes "do not rest upon any general doctrine of the law that they cannot be subjected to ... action" by state legislatures. Id. See also Murray v. City of Milford, 380 F.2d 468, 473 (2d Cir.1967); Shaw v. Zabel, 267 Or. 557, 517 P.2d 1187, 1188 (1974); Lametta v. Connecticut Light & Power Co., 139 Conn. 218, 92 A.2d 731, 733 (1952).

The Cotes also contend that section 2902 was retroactively...