Estrada v. Jaques
| Decision Date | 16 October 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 8315SC878,8315SC878 |
| Citation | 321 S.E.2d 240,70 N.C.App. 627 |
| Parties | Michael Anthony ESTRADA v. Paul F. JAQUES, Donald G. Detweiler, Thomas W. Powell and John R. Miles. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Yates & Fleishman by Joseph W. Yates, III, Raleigh, for defendants-appellees Thomas W. Powell and John R. Miles.
No brief for defendants-appellees Paul F. Jaques and Donald G. Detweiler.
This is a complex medical negligence action. Plaintiff appeals from various rulings on motions to amend pleadings, for summary judgment, and to compel discovery.
Plaintiff, Michael Estrada, worked in a tavern in Chapel Hill and was shot in the knee by a disruptive customer on 16 May 1979. His wound was treated at North Carolina Memorial Hospital (NCMH), with no apparent complications. Estrada developed a mass in his leg, however, and was readmitted to NCMH on 17 June 1979. The mass apparently resulted from a false aneurysm, a weakened spot in an arterial wall, which was probably caused by the passage of the bullet. Defendants Jaques and Detweiler (the radiologists) confirmed this diagnosis and consulted with defendants Powell and Miles (the surgeons) as to the proper treatment.
The surgeons agreed to the radiologists' advice that the false aneurysm be treated by means of a percutaneous steel coil embolization. Basically, this procedure, still relatively new, involved insertion of a small steel coil into the weakened artery upstream from the false aneurysm, thereby cutting off the flow of blood and preventing a rupture. The radiologists were to perform the embolization. The surgeons discussed the procedure with Estrada and obtained a signed consent from him on 18 June 1979.
At 3:00 that afternoon, the radiologists performed the embolization. At 3:30 Estrada was returned to his room, complaining that his leg was giving him severe pain. Symptoms indicated that the blood supply to the lower leg was inadequate. Estrada received anti-coagulants to prevent clotting in the capillaries in his leg, and was taken back to the operating room at 6:00 p.m. The surgeons operated for the next 16 hours, attempting to restore the flow of blood to Estrada's leg. By the time they were able to bypass the blocked area, the capillaries in Estrada's leg had ceased to function from the protracted lack of fresh blood and resultant clotting. Estrada's lower leg was amputated on 19 June 1979. Further facts are set out as necessary in the opinion.
Estrada brought the present action against all four defendants on 26 May 1981. The original complaint alleged that the surgeons were negligent in obtaining his consent, in that they did not inform him of the "highly experimental" nature of the steel coil embolization. As to the radiologists, the complaint alleged similar negligence in failing to explain the experimental nature of the procedure to Estrada, as well as negligence in their explanation to the surgeons and in the actual performance of the operation. The four defendants together filed an answer which admitted that the embolization was experimental, but denied any negligence. Within 30 days thereafter, the radiologists filed a separate Amended Answer which denied that the procedure was experimental. The surgeons filed a substantially identical Amended Answer.
Following discovery, the defendants filed motions for summary judgment in September 1982. Estrada moved to amend his complaint on 15 October 1982, seeking to add allegations of negligence on the part of the surgeons in their supervision and treatment of Estrada following the embolization procedure, including the remedial 16-hour operation, as well as allegations of negligence on the part of the radiologists in failing to recognize complications following the embolization. Hearing on the motions took place on 25 October 1982; the trial court granted summary judgment to all defendants on the informed consent claims, but denied the radiologists' motion with respect to the allegations of negligence by them in performing the embolization. At the same time, the court also allowed Estrada thirty days to file an Amended Complaint including the allegations of negligent treatment by the surgeons, but denied the remainder of his motion. The order was filed 29 November 1982 but, apparently because of a clerical error, Estrada never received a copy.
Upon Estrada's further discovery requests, the surgeons objected, contending that they were no longer in the case. Estrada filed a motion to amend the 29 November 1982 order, alleging non-receipt thereof and seeking (1) a corrected order allowing additional time to file an Amended Complaint and (2) a ruling that the amendment would relate back to the hearing of 25 October 1982. Judge Giles R. Clark allowed the motion by order dated 11 April 1983, and Estrada filed his Amended Complaint the next day. The Amended Complaint simply renewed verbatim the original allegations of negligence and added the portions allowed by the order of 29 November 1982. The surgeons responded, (1) contesting the trial court's jurisdiction to allow a new claim while granting summary judgment, (2) raising a statute of limitations defense, and (3) moving to strike the informed consent issue. The radiologists responded denying negligence and also moving to strike the informed consent allegations.
By order dated 8 June 1983, trial Judge Barnette allowed the radiologists' motion to strike the informed consent allegations, and allowed certain portions of a motion by Estrada to compel discovery against the radiologists. By separate judgment dated 15 June 1983, Judge Barnette reaffirmed the dismissal of the informed consent allegations against the surgeons. In addition, he ruled that the allegations of negligence added by the amendment were interposed at the time of hearing in October 1982, not at the time of the original complaint, 26 May 1981; thus, the three-year statute of limitations barred them, and Judge Barnette awarded summary judgment on all claims as to the surgeons. Estrada appeals.
The first question presented is whether the court erred in granting the surgeons' motion for summary judgment on the negligence claim relating to their treatment of Estrada following the embolization. The judgment is presently appealable, since the trial court certified that there was no just reason for delay. N.C.Gen.Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 54(b) (1983). The judgment rested on the court's conclusion that the allegations, ruled to relate back to 25 October 1982, were nonetheless filed after the statute of limitations had expired and did not relate back to the original complaint.
Estrada's injuries occurred in June of 1979 and the applicable statutes of limitation require actions to be brought within three years. N.C.Gen.Stat. § 1-15(c) (1983); N.C.Gen.Stat. § 1-52(16) (1983). Estrada urges that the surgeons were put on notice of the occurrences underlying the claim, and therefore the court erred in ruling that the amendment did not relate back to the original filing of the suit in 1981 and granting summary judgment accordingly. The surgeons urge affirmance on the ground that Estrada in essence attempted to allege a new cause of action.
The critical statutory language is found in N.C.Gen.Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 15(c) (1983):
A claim asserted in an amended pleading is deemed to have been interposed at the time the claim in the original pleading was interposed, unless the original pleading does not give notice of the transactions, occurrences, or series of transactions or occurrences, to be proved pursuant to the amended pleading.
This rule, unlike the remainder of Rule 15, is drawn from Rule 3025 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules. G.S. § 1A-1, Rule 15, Comment (1983). Rule 15(c) provides for a liberal standard for relation back of amendments:
The amended pleading will ... relate back if the new pleading merely amplifies the old cause of action, or now even if the new pleading constitutes a new cause of action, provided that the defending party had originally been placed on notice of the events involved. For example, an amended cause of action for damages for breach of a contract would relate back where the original pleading alleged an action in equity to rescind the contract for fraud. (Emphasis added.)
Id., quoting H. Wachtell, N.Y. Practice Under the C.P.L.R. 141 (2d ed. 1963). Under the New York practice, amendments are allowed liberally, "almost as a matter of course." In re Robillard's Will, 136 N.Y.S.2d 79, 80 (1951). This is consistent with the stated policy of the rules that leave "shall be freely given." G.S. § 1A-1, Rule 15(a) (1983).
Our Supreme Court has recently considered the application of Rule 15(c) in Henry v. Deen, 310 N.C. 75, 310 S.E.2d 326 (1984). The Court declined to attempt a judicial exegesis of the rule, instead allowing it to speak for itself: the decisive test for relation back remains notice in the original pleading of the transactions or occurrences to be proved pursuant to the amended pleading. Applying this test, the Henry court ruled that the original complaint contained only allegations which negated the possibility of actionable negligence sought to be raised in the amendment. The original complaint repeatedly alleged that one defendant, Dr. Niazi, had never consulted with or advised the treating defendants, but had instead engaged in a civil conspiracy to create a false record of such consultation. The proposed amendment, entirely to the contrary, alleged that Dr. Niazi did actually and negligently advise the other defendants. It added a claim of negligence against Dr. Niazi, in addition to the original civil conspiracy claim. The Court, Justices Martin and Frye dissenting, reversed this Court and upheld the trial court's denial of leave to amend.
In the present case, on the other...
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