Blea v. Fields

• Decision Date: 15 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. 28,740.,28,740.
• Citation: 2005 NMSC 029,120 P.3d 430
• Parties: Stella BLEA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Roderick FIELDS, M.D., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

120 P.3d 430

2005 NMSC 029

Stella BLEA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Roderick FIELDS, M.D., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 28,740.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

August 15, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Roger Eaton, Eaton, Martinez & Hart, P.C., Michael J. Doyle, Albuquerque, for Appellant.

Reeves, Chavez, Albers, Anderson & Montes, P.A., William R. Anderson, Las Cruces, for Appellee.

OPINION

CHAVEZ, Justice.

{1} In this medical negligence case we are asked to clarify the state of the law in New Mexico regarding a party's entitlement to a jury trial in a case that involves both legal and equitable claims. The following question was certified to us by the Court of Appeals pursuant to Rule 12-606 NMRA 2005 and NMSA 1978, Section 34-5-14(C) (1972): "Whether a party is entitled to a jury trial where proper and timely demand has been made in a matter that involves mixed claims of law and equity, and where a decision on the equitable claims will dispose of the legal claim?" This question was certified because of the apparent discord between New Mexico cases concerning whether, in cases involving mixed claims of equity and law, the equitable or legal claim must be heard first. In Evans Fin. Corp. v. Strasser, 99 N.M. 788, 790, 664 P.2d 986, 988 (1983), this Court followed the approach of the United States Supreme Court in Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 359 U.S. 500, 503-04, 508, 79 S.Ct. 948, 3 L.Ed.2d 988 (1959), which held that in a case involving equitable and legal claims, the constitutional right to a jury trial on the legal claims limits a trial judge's traditional discretion to decide the equitable claims first, and absent "imperative circumstances," common fact issues must be submitted first to a jury. Id. at 510-11, 79 S.Ct. 948. On the other hand, in State ex rel. McAdams v. District Court, 105 N.M. 95, 97, 728 P.2d 1364, 1366 (1986) we stated the equitable claims were to be tried first. We hold that when a case involves both equitable and legal claims, a trial judge may decide the equitable claims first if the equitable claims do not have any disputed fact issues in common with the legal claims. This is true even if deciding the equitable claims results in dismissal of the legal claims. However, when equitable and legal claims present common issues of fact which are material to the disposition of both claims, the legal claims must be submitted to a jury before the equitable claims are decided. Otherwise, the judge while deciding the equitable claims will have invaded the province of the jury by deciding disputed facts that are material to the legal claim. In so holding, we affirm.

DISCUSSION

{2} Plaintiff Stella Blea brought a medical negligence action in June 1997 against Defendant Dr. Roderick Fields, a Rheumatologist. Plaintiff alleges she had an allergic reaction to the pain reliever Naprosyn, which Defendant prescribed to her in February 1995, although Defendant had been informed that Plaintiff had experienced asthma-related reactions to aspirin and knew that Naprosyn is contraindicated in such individuals. Plaintiff alleged that Defendant's negligence resulted in her hospitalization in March 1995. Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint, or alternatively for summary judgment, arguing that at all times relevant to the complaint, he was an employee of Memorial Medical Center (MMC), a City/County Hospital, and therefore the action was barred by the two-year statute of limitations in the New Mexico Tort Claims Act. NMSA 1978, § 41-4-15 (1977). In response, Plaintiff disputed that Defendant was an employee of MMC, but asserted that even if Defendant was an employee of MMC, Defendant concealed his employee status as well as his potential negligence in prescribing the Naprosyn. Therefore, Plaintiff argued, Defendant should be equitably estopped from asserting a statute of limitations defense or, alternatively, the statutory period should be tolled under the theory of fraudulent concealment. We refer to these two claims collectively as "equitable claims."

{3} The parties filed, and the trial judge denied, numerous motions and cross-motions for summary judgment on Defendant's statute of limitations defense and Plaintiff's equitable claims. The trial judge, however, granted Defendant's motion for an evidentiary hearing on the equitable claims and agreed to try the equitable claims before the medical negligence claim was submitted to a jury. Plaintiff agreed that the equitable claims should be bifurcated from the legal claim but objected to having the equitable claims tried first, asserting that to do so would deprive her of her right to a jury trial on the common issues of fact underlying both her medical negligence claim and equitable claims.

{4} Before the evidentiary hearing on the equitable claims, the trial court revived Defendant's earlier summary judgment motion as to whether Defendant was a public employee. After full briefing, the court found that Defendant was a public employee at the relevant time and entered a partial summary judgment in Defendant's favor. The court subsequently held the evidentiary hearing on the equitable claims and entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court rejected Plaintiff's theories of equitable estoppel and fraudulent concealment and dismissed Plaintiff's medical negligence claim as barred by the two-year statute of limitations. Plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeals, which in turn certified the above question. We affirm.

I. New Mexico Follows the Beacon Theatres Approach

{5} In New Mexico, as under the federal constitution, there is a constitutional right to trial by jury where the remedy sought is legal, rather than equitable. N.M. Const. art. II, § 12; Strasser, 99 N.M. at 789, 664 P.2d at 987. Where a case involves both legal and equitable claims, the court must decide the order in which the claims will be heard. Plaintiff claims New Mexico follows the approach of Beacon Theatres, which held that when a case involves legal and equitable claims and deciding the equitable claims first would infringe an individual's Seventh Amendment right to have a jury decide the factual issues underlying the legal claims, the judge's traditional discretion to hear equitable claims first is narrowly limited in light of the constitutional considerations. Beacon Theatres, 359 U.S. at 503-04, 508, 79 S.Ct. 948. In Beacon Theatres, the Supreme Court vacated a district court's order which it concluded deprived the defendant of a jury trial on the legal issues raised by its counter and cross-claims arising from the original suit, holding that "[o]nly under the most imperative circumstances . . . can the right to a jury trial of legal issues be lost through prior determination of equitable claims." Id. at 510-11, 79 S.Ct. 948. In doing so, the Court emphasized that "[m]aintenance of the jury as a fact-finding body is of such importance and occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any seeming curtailment of the right to a jury trial should be scrutinized with the utmost care." Id. at 501, 79 S.Ct. 948 (quoted authority omitted). The Supreme Court later applied this same approach to a shareholder's derivative action, holding there was a right to a jury trial on those issues to which the corporation, had it brought the action itself, would have had the right to a jury trial. Ross v. Bernhard, 396 U.S. 531, 532-38, 90 S.Ct. 733, 24 L.Ed.2d 729 (1970).

{6} New Mexico appellate courts have recognized that a party's right to a jury trial under the state constitution could be infringed if, in a case involving both equitable and legal claims, the equitable claims are decided before the legal claims. Scott v. Woods, 105 N.M. 177, 183, 730 P.2d 480, 486 (Ct.App.), cert. quashed, 105 N.M. 26, 727 P.2d 1341 (1986); see also Peay v. Ortega, 101 N.M. 564, 565, 686 P.2d 254, 255 (1984) (holding that after parties stipulated to jury trial, case could not be withdrawn from the jury simply because equitable issues were involved, implying that to do so could infringe the right to jury trial on material factual issues underlying the legal claims). We applied the Beacon Theatres rule for the first time in Strasser, 99 N.M. at 789-90, 664 P.2d at 987-88, when we determined that parties in an equitable proceeding had a right to a jury trial when their counterclaim involved legal issues. The Court of Appeals subsequently extended that principle when it adopted the reasoning of Ross, which stated that "where equitable and legal issues are joined in the same action, there is a right to jury trial on the legal claims which must not be infringed either by trying the legal issues as incidental to the equitable ones or by a court trial of a common issue existing between the claims." Ross, 396 U.S. at 537-38, 90 S.Ct. 733; Woods, 105 N.M. at 181-83, 730 P.2d at 484-86. The Court of Appeals emphasized that in determining whether a jury trial is necessary, the appropriate focus is not the character of the overall action, but the nature of the individual issues to be tried. Woods, 105 N.M. at 183, 730 P.2d at 486 (applying the Seventh Amendment analysis from Ross, 396 U.S. at 537-38, 90 S.Ct. 733, to jury trial rights under the New Mexico Constitution). Thus, when equitable and legal claims present a common issue of fact which is material to the disposition of each claim, the legal claim must be submitted to a jury before the equitable claim is decided. See Beacon Theatres, 359 U.S. at 503-04, 508, 79 S.Ct. 948; Woods, 105 N.M. at 181-85, 730 P.2d at 484-88.

{7} However, in McAdams, decided just four months after Woods, this Court held that "when legal and equitable issues are joined in a lawsuit the trial court should first decide the equitable issues, and then if any independent legal issues remain, those issues may be tried to a jury upon appropriate request." 105 N.M. at 97, 728 P.2d at 1366. We recognize this statement in McAdams is inconsistent with Strasser and Woods...