Addison v. Lochearn

• Decision Date: 10 November 2009
• Docket Number: No. 134, September Term, 2008.,134, September Term, 2008.
• Citation: 411 Md. 251,983 A.2d 138
• Parties: Beulah ADDISON v. LOCHEARN NURSING HOME, LLC d/b/a/ Futurecare-Lochearn.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

983 A.2d 138

411 Md. 251

Beulah ADDISON v. LOCHEARN NURSING HOME, LLC d/b/a/ Futurecare-Lochearn.

No. 134, September Term, 2008.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

November 10, 2009.;

F. Paul Bland (Claire Prestel, Public Justice of Washington, D.C., Phillip Robinson, Civil Justice, Inc., Baltimore), on brief, for Petitioner.

Melvin J. Sykes (Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, Baltimore, Natalie Paige Drinkard, Pursel & Drinkard, LLC, Columbia), on brief, for Respondent.

C. Matthew Hill, Murnaghan Appellate Advocacy Fellow, Baltimore, Amici Curiae.

Kelly Bagby, AARP Foundation Litigation, Michael Schuster, AARP, Washington,

DC, Dora Chen, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Service Employees International Union, Washington, DC, Cheryl L. Hystad, Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., Baltimore, Lauren Young, Maryland Disability Law Center, Baltimore, Amici Curiae.

Peter A. Holland, Holland Law Firm, Annapolis, Amici Curiae.

Jonathan Scott Smith, Jonathan Scott Smith, LLC, Columbia, Amicus Curiae.

Argued before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, MURPHY, ADKINS and BARBERA, JJ.

BATTAGLIA, J.

In this case, we must address whether Section 12-303(3)(ix) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, Maryland Code (1974, 2006 Repl.Vol.),¹ permits an appeal of an order denying a motion to compel arbitration, in a case in which the circuit court judge also expressly denied a motion to certify the denial as a final judgment. We will answer that question in the negative, shall vacate the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals, and direct that the appeal be dismissed.

I. Background

Lochearn Nursing Home, LLC, d/b/a FutureCare-Lochearn, Inc. (hereinafter "FutureCare"), Respondent, sued Beulah Addison, Petitioner, a resident of the nursing home, for $71,928.90² in delinquent "nursing home care and service" payments, in a breach of contract action brought in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Ms. Addison defended against the breach of contract claim by filing an Answer, asserting both negative and affirmative defenses, as well as a seven-count counterclaim,³ alleging that she was unable to pay because one of FutureCare's employees, a social worker, embroiled her in a real estate "foreclosure rescue scam" that deprived her of the equity in her former home, which not only prevented her from paying the bill, but also from successfully applying for medical assistance, and that FutureCare mismanaged the filing of her Medicaid application.⁴ FutureCare responded to Ms. Addison's Counterclaim by filing an Answer generally denying liability. FutureCare also filed a "Motion to Compel Arbitration of Counterclaims, Motion to Stay, and Request for Attorney's Fees," asserting that the Resident and Facility Arbitration Agreement, signed by Ms. Addison upon her entry to the nursing home, required her to submit her counterclaims to arbitration. After a hearing, the judge denied FutureCare's arbitration motion, after which FutureCare requested that the order denying the motions be certified as a final judgment under Rule 2-602(b). The judge denied the motion to certify the order as final.

FutureCare, nevertheless, appealed immediately to the Court of Special Appeals, challenging the denial of its motion to compel arbitration and for a stay. Ms. Addison responded by filing a "Motion to Dismiss the Interlocutory Appeal" in that court, arguing that there was no final judgment on all claims within the meaning of Rule 2-602 and that, therefore, the appeal was premature. The Chief Judge of the Court of Special Appeals denied the motion, stating that Section 12-303(3)(ix)⁵ permits an interlocutory appeal of an order "granting a petition to stay arbitration pursuant to § 3-208[⁶] of this article," and that, "[t]here is little difference between the denial of a motion to arbitrate and a CJ § 12-303(3)(ix) order staying arbitration: both stop arbitration. See Essex Corp. v. Susan Katharine Tate Burrowbridge, LLC, et. al, [178 Md.App. 17, 940 A.2d 199 (2008) ]." In the order, the Chief Judge also left open the opportunity for FutureCare, "to request in its brief that a Panel of [the intermediate appellate court] enter a final judgment pursuant to Maryland Rule 8-602(e)(1) on the circuit court's arbitration ruling, as happened in Essex Corp., supra." After oral argument,⁷ a panel of the Court of Special Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, acceded to FutureCare's request as to the circuit court order denying FutureCare's motion to compel arbitration and certified it as final.

The Court of Special Appeals reversed the circuit court judge's denial of FutureCare's Motion to Compel Arbitration, holding that ambiguity existed regarding whether the counterclaim fell within the arbitration clause and remanded the case with instructions for the circuit court to enter an order compelling arbitration and staying litigation. In so ordering, the intermediate appellate court, nevertheless, remained cognizant of the public policy dimension of an arbitration agreement involving a nursing home patient In concluding that the ambiguity of key terms of the agreement require us to defer their interpretation to an arbitrator, we are not unmindful of the fact that the use of arbitration provisions in nursing home contracts is a matter of public concern. In addition, two bills are moving through Congress to make unenforceable all pre-dispute, mandatory binding arbitration clauses in contracts between long-term care facilities and their residents. Nevertheless, the present state of Maryland law on arbitration leaves us no other course.

(Internal citations omitted). Ms. Addison thereafter petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari, which we granted, 406 Md. 743, 962 A.2d 370 (2008), to address the following question:

Did the Court of Special Appeals err in compelling arbitration of claims arising from a predatory real estate scam and sabotaged Medicaid application?

After argument before us, we requested the parties to submit supplemental briefs and to argue an additional issue:

Assuming that the denial of the motion to compel arbitration and to stay the judicial proceedings in the present case is not appealable as a final judgment, does Section 12-303(3)(ix) of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article permit an appeal as an appealable interlocutory order?

We shall not address the merits of this controversy as raised by the original certiorari question, but will vacate the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals and direct that FutureCare's appeal be dismissed, because the Court of Special Appeals could not certify the circuit court order as final, after the circuit court judge had refused to do so, and the denial of the motion to compel arbitration does not constitute an appealable interlocutory order or collateral order from which FutureCare could appeal.

II. Discussion

A. Final Judgment

Generally, under Section 12-301,⁸ a party may appeal only from a final judgment entered in a civil or criminal case by a circuit court. A "final judgment" is "a judgment, decree, sentence, order, determination, decision, or other action by a court ... from which an appeal ... may be taken." Section 12-101(f). We have often stated that our jurisdiction is defined by statute, and that appeals must be taken from final judgments, except under certain limited exceptions, as Judge Irma S. Raker, writing for this Court in Gruber v. Gruber, 369 Md. 540, 546, 801 A.2d 1013, 1016 (2002), succinctly stated:

This Court has often stated that, except as constitutionally authorized, appellate jurisdiction "is determined entirely by statute, and that, therefore, a right of appeal must be legislatively granted." Kant v. Montgomery County, 365 Md. 269, 273, 778 A.2d 384, 386 (2001). Where appellate jurisdiction is lacking, the appellate court will dismiss the appeal on its own motion. Highfield Water Co. v. Washington County Sanitary Dist., 295 Md. 410, 414, 456 A.2d 371, 373 (1983).

It is well settled that with exceptions not relevant here, an appeal may be taken to the Court of Special Appeals under Maryland Code (1957, 1998 Repl. Vol., 2001 Supp.) § 12-301 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article only from a "final judgment entered in a civil or criminal case by a circuit court." See Taha v. Southern Mgmt. Co., 367 Md. 564, 790 A.2d 11 (2002); O'Brien v. O'Brien, 367 Md. 547, 790 A.2d 1 (2002). Except for the limited category of exceptions codified in § 12-303 or under the collateral order doctrine, an appeal will not lie from an interlocutory order entered in a civil case. Philip Morris, Inc. v. Angeletti, 358 Md. 689, 713, 752 A.2d 200, 213 (2000). We have often stated that the underlying policy of the final judgment rule is to avoid piecemeal appeals. See Brewster v. Woodhaven Bldg. & Dev., 360 Md. 602, 616, 759 A.2d 738, 745 (2000). Whether a matter is appealable is a jurisdictional matter and may be raised by an appellate court even if not noted by the parties. See, e.g., In re Franklin P., 366 Md. 306, 326, 783 A.2d 673, 685 (2001).

A ruling of the circuit court, to constitute a final judgment, must, among other things, be an "unqualified, final disposition of the matter in controversy." Rohrbeck v. Rohrbeck, 318 Md. 28, 41, 566 A.2d 767, 773 (1989). An order merely assuming jurisdiction in a matter does not constitute such a decision.

The certification as final of the denial of the motion to compel arbitration in the instant case, entered by a panel of the Court of Special Appeals under Rule 8-602(e),⁹ however, directly contravened the denial by the circuit court judge to certify the same order as final earlier in the litigation, and as such, must be vacated in light of our holdings in Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. Gress, 378 Md. 667, 838 A.2d 362 (2003), and Silbersack v. ACandS, Inc., 402 Md. 673, 938 A.2d 855 (2008). Gress was a wrongful death action against asbestos and cigarette manufacturers, among others, in which it was alleged that the decedent's lung cancer was caused by a ...