Miller v. Boone County Hosp.

• Decision Date: 15 October 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-1275,85-1275
• Parties: Crystal MILLER, Individually and next friend of Aaron Miller, a minor, Appellant, v. BOONE COUNTY HOSPITAL, Boone, Iowa, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 776

394 N.W.2d 776

55 USLW 2250

Crystal MILLER, Individually and next friend of Aaron Miller, a minor, Appellant, v. BOONE COUNTY HOSPITAL, Boone, Iowa, Appellee.

No. 85-1275.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 15, 1986.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 7, 1986.

Lylea M. Dodson and Nick Critelli, Des Moines, for appellant.

Robert C. Rouwenhorst and Eugene Davis of Davis, Grace, Harvey, Horvath, Gonnerman & Rouwenhorst, Des Moines, for appellee.

Considered en banc.

LAVORATO, Justice.

Iowa Code chapter 613A (1983) governs tort claims against local governments. Section 613A.5 requires a person claiming damages to commence an action within six months after injury or cause a written notice to be presented to the local government within sixty days after injury. ¹ Thirteen years ago we held that section 613A.5 did not deny equal protection of the law by classifying victims of governmental torts differently from victims of private torts. Lunday v. Vogelmann, 213 N.W.2d 904, 908 (Iowa 1973). Victims of governmental torts are subject to the special notice requirement whereas victims of private torts are not. In upholding the constitutionality of the statute, we said that

[t]he fundamental motivation attributed to legislatures which have enacted such notice requirements is that where a governmental subdivision is involved the public has an interest it does not have as to claims against private persons in seeing prompt and thorough investigation of claims is made. This protects the public treasury from stale claims. It permits prompt settlement of meritorious claims and facilitates planning of municipal budgets. The notice requirement also ensures that notices reach the public officers with responsibility to deal with them and in many instances should enable such officers to remedy defects in far-flung municipal property before other persons are injured. We are unable and unwilling to say § 613A.5 is patently arbitrary and bears no rational relationship to a legitimate governmental interest.

213 N.W.2d at 907-08 (citations omitted). Today, we revisit the issue, and we reexamine the reasons for our holding. ²

Plaintiff Crystal Miller, individually and on behalf of her injured son, argues the notice requirement violates equal protection because it creates an impermissible class: plaintiffs injured by local governments vis-a-vis plaintiffs injured by private tort-feasors.

Aaron was eighteen-months-old when his mother noticed he had a high fever. She sought advice from personnel employed by the defendant, Boone County Hospital. Later that day, she apparently received and followed contrary medical advice from other persons. Nearly two years later she filed a petition against the defendant. She alleged its personnel negligently failed to recommend immediate treatment for her son, causing his severe injuries and damages to both plaintiffs. Because the plaintiffs did not comply with the notice provision of section 613A.5, however, the district court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment, Iowa R.Civ.P. 237. The plaintiffs have now appealed, and we reverse and remand.

I. Governmental immunity.

The origins and underlying purposes of notice requirements are rooted in governmental immunity, and may be viewed as a partial substitute for it. W. Prosser & W. Keeton, The Law of Torts § 131, at 1043, 1045-46 (5th ed. 1984); Note, 60 Cornell L.Rev. 417, 419, 422 (1975). This doctrine has been severely criticized by modern courts and commentators:

Since [governmental] immunity eliminates suits against the state for torts, which, if committed by private parties, would probably be actionable, it has been characterized as both unjust and incompatible with the American governmental-legal system. This characterization is bolstered by three important facts. First, the United States is not governed by a monarch (who the English have said can do no wrong). Second, the American sovereign power belongs not to the government, but to the people. Third, and most important from a legal standpoint, some jurisdictions have openly acknowledged that private citizens have a fundamental right to seek redress in tort from whomever inflicts a wrong, including the state.

Note, 60 Cornell L.Rev., supra, at 421 (footnotes omitted); see Muskopf v. Corning Hospital District, 55 Cal.2d 211, 213, 216, 359 P.2d 457, 458, 460, 11 Cal.Rptr. 89, 90, 92 (1961); Boyer v. Iowa High School Athletic Association, 256 Iowa 337, 349, 127 N.W.2d 606, 613 (1964) (Moore, J., dissenting); Note, 56 Iowa L.Rev. 930, 930 933-35 (1971); Note, 16 Drake L.Rev. 35, 38 (1966); Comment, 50 Iowa L.Rev. 226, 227 n. 5 (1964).

Our court embraced immunity for the State, on commonlaw grounds, without question. See Metz v. Soule, Kretsinger & Co., 40 Iowa 236, 239-40 (1875). Local governments were held liable, however, for the negligence of their employees performing "proprietary" functions. See, e.g., Iseminger v. Black Hawk County, 175 N.W.2d 374, 380 (Iowa 1970); Wittmer v. Letts, 248 Iowa 648, 652, 80 N.W.2d 561, 563 (1957); Florey v. City of Burlington, 247 Iowa 316, 321, 73 N.W.2d 770, 772 (1955); Petz, Survey of Iowa Law--Some Tort-Related Statutes, 23 Drake L.Rev. 603, 615 (1974); Note, 11 Drake L.Rev. 79, 89 (1962); Note, 9 Drake L.Rev. 41, 42-43 (1959). While eventually recognizing the shortcomings of governmental immunity, we left its abrogation to the legislature, despite its judicial origin. See, e.g., Boyer, 256 Iowa at 348, 127 N.W.2d at 612-13.

In 1965, the legislature abolished immunity for the State. See Iowa Code ch. 25A. Two years later it enacted chapter 613A, after we held in Graham v. Worthington, 259 Iowa 845, 854-55, 146 N.W.2d 626, 633 (1966) that the State's political subdivisions were not covered by the 1965 act.

The court in Sprung v. Rasmussen, 180 N.W.2d 430, 433 (Iowa 1970) incorrectly characterized Section 613A.5 as a statute of creation rather than a statute of limitations. With the greater power to create a right of action, it was thought, comes the lesser power to condition it:

Where, as here, the legislature has created a new right of action, it made a legislative judgment that the cause should be brought within a specified time. This difference doubtlessly arises from the fact the statute ... is in derogation of sovereign immunity and that the legislature might, and did, properly restrict and limit the application of the statute.

180 N.W.2d at 433; accord Harryman, 257 N.W.2d at 636; Dan Dugan Transport Co. v. Worth County, 243 N.W.2d 655, 657 (Iowa 1976); Lunday, 213 N.W.2d at 907.

Whether or not a right of action was created in chapter 613A is irrelevant to the constitutionality of its notice requirement. See Turner v. Staggs, 89 Nev. 230, 239, 510 P.2d 879, 885 (1973) (Zenoff, J., concurring); Note, 60 Cornell L.Rev., supra, at 440. Cf. Turner v. Turner, 304 N.W.2d 786, 787 (Iowa 1981) ("to the extent [parental] immunity is abrogated it does not create a new liability.... [but] merely removes a judicially imposed barrier to recovery"). We should not conclusively presume, as Lunday implied by quoting Sprung, 213 N.W.2d at 907, the provisions of chapter 613A are constitutional merely because they resulted from legislative enactment. With one justice changing his vote, the court in Boyer would have abrogated immunity of local governments three years earlier than did the legislature. Thus, "there is no sanctity" to the notice requirement. O'Neil v. City of Parkersburg, 237 S.E.2d 504, 507 (W.Va.1977).

To defer to the legislature because it has provided liability for the negligence of the State's political subdivisions is to say every condition imposed, no matter how harsh, may never be questioned. The analysis in Sprung and its progeny begs the question of constitutionality.

II. Equal protection.

The plaintiffs argue that in creating the class, ³ section 613A.5 violates the equal protection clauses of both the federal (14th amendment) and Iowa (Article I, section 6) constitutions. We have interpreted both constitutional provisions similarly. See Beeler v. Van Cannon, 376 N.W.2d 628, 629 (Iowa 1985).

As we did in Lunday, we apply the rational basis test. 213 N.W.2d at 907. In applying the standard

we are to determine if the classification or distinction drawn by the statute is reasonably related to some legitimate state interest. The party attacking the classification has the heavy burden of proving the action unconstitutional, and must negate every reasonable basis upon which the action may be sustained. There is, of course, a strong presumption in favor of the constitutionality of any legislative enactment. It is presumed the legislature intended the statute to comply with both the state and federal constitutions.

Beeler, 376 N.W.2d at 630 (citations omitted). In examining the claimed interests of a statute, our focus is on whether they are realistically conceivable. Moreover, when examining the provisions of section 613A.5, we should consider what we said in State v. Bartels, 191 Iowa 1060, 1073, 181 N.W. 508, 515 (1921): "For the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the classification is arbitrary and unreasonable, we must take into consideration matters of common knowledge and common report and the history of the times."

Almost one hundred years ago the legislature enacted its first notice requirement for claims against a local government. 1888 Iowa Laws § 25.1 (22nd G.A.) (for actions based on defective streets or sidewalks). Presumably this statute was the model for section 613A.5. According to Lunday, 213 N.W.2d at 907-08, section 613A.5 was enacted to protect local governments' treasuries from stale claims, and facilitate prompt settling of valid claims, planning of budgets, and repair of defective conditions. Accord Harrop v. Keller, 253 N.W.2d 588, 592-93 (Iowa 1977); Shearer v. Perry Community School District, 236 N.W.2d 688, 692 (Iowa 1975); Norland v. Mason City, 199 N.W.2d 316, 318 (Iowa 1972).

Section 613A.5...