Glynne v. Wilson Med. Ctr., Carolina Corp.

• Decision Date: 02 September 2014
• Docket Number: No. COA14–53.,COA14–53.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: Rose GLYNNE, M.D., Plaintiff v. WILSON MEDICAL CENTER, a North Carolina corporation, Defendant.

762 S.E.2d 645

Rose GLYNNE, M.D., Plaintiff

v.WILSON MEDICAL CENTER, a North Carolina corporation, Defendant.

No. COA14–53.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Sept. 2, 2014.

Appeal by plaintiff from judgment entered 4 September 2013 by Judge Marvin K. Blount, III, in Wilson County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 8 May 2014.

Medicolegal Consultants, LLC, by C. William Hinnant Jr., and McKinney Law Firm, PLLC, by Elizabeth McKinney, for Plaintiff.

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP, Winston–Salem, by John E. Pueschel and Theresa M. Sprain, for Defendant.

ERVIN, Judge.

Plaintiff Rose L. Glynne, M.D., appeals from an order dismissing her complaint. On appeal, Plaintiff contends that the trial court erred by granting Defendant Wilson Medical Center's dismissal motion on the grounds that the time within which she was entitled to file her complaint had been extended by 28 U.S.C. § 1367(d) and that, even if her complaint had not been filed in a timely manner, she was still entitled to equitable relief on the grounds of excusable neglect, equitable tolling, or equitable estoppel. After careful consideration of Plaintiff's challenges to the trial court's order in light of the record and the applicable law, we conclude that the trial court's order should be affirmed.

I. Factual Background

A. Substantive Facts

Plaintiff practiced medicine in Wilson, having opened her own practice in that community in 2002 after having been employed by another Wilson-based practice group before that time. As a result of the initial success that she experienced after having formed her own practice, Plaintiff employed an associate and purchased an office building. In October 2002, Plaintiff entered into an agreement to lease space in her office building to Defendant, which occupied and used the space from December 2005 until July 2006, when it vacated the premises. Plaintiff claimed that Defendant violated the lease agreement between the parties by failing to pay rent.

In April 2006, Defendant initiated an external quality review concerning Plaintiff based upon allegations that complications had been detected in surgical procedures that she performed in 2004 and 2005. However, the inquiry did not result in any adverse findings in reference to Plaintiff.

On 15 November 2006, Plaintiff attended a meeting of Defendant's medical executive committee at Defendant's request. At that meeting, Plaintiff was informed that problems involving the care that she provided to patients had been reported by several individuals. However, the nature of the problems that had been reported by these individuals was not explained to Plaintiff with any degree of precision. In addition, Defendant expressed concern that there was a high probability that surgical procedures performed by Plaintiff would result in complications. For that reason, Defendant believed that Plaintiff should repeat her residency or obtain a mentor. Although Plaintiff was unable to attend another committee meeting scheduled for the following day due to a medical emergency involving her daughter, she did notify a member of the committee of that fact. The person to whom Plaintiff communicated this information failed to inform the review committee of the necessity for Plaintiff's absence.

On 20 November 2006, Plaintiff's counsel notified Plaintiff that her privileges to admit and treat patients at Defendant's facility would be suspended 21 November 2006. On the following day, Plaintiff learned that Defendant insisted that she satisfy a number of requirements in order to obtain the restoration of her privileges, including taking a leave of absence, obtaining the agreement of a qualified physician to serve as mentor, and having all of her proposed surgical cases reviewed by a board for a period of one year. Plaintiff took leave from practicing medicine from 21 November 2006 until 19 February 2007. During this interval, Plaintiff had to pay $50,000 in additional compensation to her associate in order to ensure that needed call coverage was provided. Although Plaintiff attempted to obtain the assistance of a mentor, Defendant declined to approve the proposed mentoring relationship on the grounds that the proposed mentor no longer practiced obstetrics. After rejecting Plaintiff's proposal, however, Defendant recommended that Plaintiff reach agreement with a different mentor, who had also ceased practicing obstetrics.

On 27 December 2006, Plaintiff received a letter from Defendant identifying the allegedly problematic procedures that had been discussed at the 15 November meeting. On 6 January 2007, Dr. Michael Halpert, Defendant's Chief of Surgery, was appointed to investigate the validity of the allegations that had been made against Plaintiff. On 8 February 2007, Dr. Halpert concluded that there was no evidence of an increased infection rate, other patient-related psychological or medical problems, or other instances of substandard care in the surgical procedures that Plaintiff had performed.

Although Plaintiff was allowed to resume treating patients and performing surgical procedures at Defendant's hospital on 19 February 2007, Defendant insisted that an external source review any questionable cases and that Plaintiff refrain from being on call for more than four consecutive days. As a result of the imposition of this limitation on her ability to be on call, Plaintiff had to continue to make additional payments to her associate in order to ensure the availability of the necessary call coverage.

On 20 December 2006, Plaintiff entered into an agreement with Parklane Venture Capitalists under which she was to sell her medical office building for a price of $1,000,000 while leasing a portion of the space in that building for the use of her medical practice. In the course of investigating the proposed purchase of Plaintiff's office building, however, Parklane learned that Defendant had ceased leasing space in Plaintiff's building. As a result, Parklane withdrew its offer to purchase Plaintiff's building, costing Plaintiff a substantial amount of money.

Although Plaintiff denied having experienced stress prior to the November 2006 meeting, she did experience emotional turmoil after that time and discussed her feelings with a family therapist and her colleagues. Despite the fact that Plaintiff had regained her privileges at Defendant's hospital in February 2007, her enforced absence from practice coupled with the fact that rumors concerning her alleged patient care issues were circulating in the community resulted in substantial economic harm to her practice. On 15 November 2007, Plaintiff resigned her position as a member of the staff of Defendant's hospital, moved to Rocky Mount, and entered practice there. However, as the result of the financial loss that she sustained because of her temporary loss of privileges at Defendant's hospital and Defendant's refusal to honor the lease agreement, Plaintiff was required to seek personal bankruptcy protection and lost her office building.

B. Procedural History

On 10 December 2008, Plaintiff filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in which she asserted numerous claims against Defendant arising under both federal and state law. After Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her federal claims with prejudice on or about 30 April 2009, the District Court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's state law claims and involuntarily dismissed the remainder of Plaintiff's complaint without prejudice on 1 March 2011.

On 7 April 2011, Plaintiff filed a complaint in this case in which she asserted claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with a prospective business relationship, breach of contract, and breach of the lease agreement against Defendant. On 13 May 2011, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiff's complaint on the grounds that all of the claims that Plaintiff had asserted against Defendant were barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

On 26 May 2011, Plaintiff filed a motion seeking an extension of time to file a notice of appeal from the order dismissing Plaintiff's federal action or, alternatively, for relief from judgment, in the federal court action. On 4 August 2011, nunc pro tunc to 1 March 2011, the District Court entered an order allowing Plaintiff sixty days within which to reassert the dismissed state law claims in the General Court of Justice. Defendant noted an appeal from the District Court's order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on 8 August 2011. On 18 October 2012, the Fourth Circuit vacated the District Court's order. Glynne v. Wilmed Healthcare, 699 F.3d 380 (2012). On 22 October 2012, Plaintiff filed a motion requesting the District Court to reconsider its refusal to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's state law claims. The District Court denied Plaintiff's motion on 26 March 2013.

On 19 August 2013, the trial court conducted a hearing concerning the issues raised by Defendant's dismissal motion. On 4 September 2013, the trial court entered an order granting Defendant's dismissal motion and dismissing with prejudice all of the claims that Plaintiff had asserted against Defendant. Plaintiff noted an appeal to this Court from the trial court's order.

II. Legal Analysis

A. Standard of Review

“The standard of review of an order granting a [motion filed pursuant to N.C. Gen.Stat. § 1A–1, Rule] 12(b)(6) [ ] is whether the complaint states a claim for which relief can be granted under some legal theory when the complaint is liberally construed and all the allegations included therein are taken as true.” Burgin v. Owen, 181 N.C.App. 511, 512, 640 S.E.2d 427, 428 (citing Country Club of Johnston County, Inc. v. U.S. Fidelity & Guar. Co., 150 N.C.App. 231, 238, 563 S.E.2d 269, 274 (2002), disc. review dismissed,

361 N.C. 425...