Rowland v. Patterson
| Decision Date | 06 September 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-1721,87-1721 |
| Citation | 852 F.2d 108 |
| Parties | Janet L. ROWLAND; Donald E. Rowland, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Donald A. PATTERSON, M.D.; Tom J. Altizer, M.D.; Michael A. Winslow, M.D.; Robert K. Hobbs, M.D., Robert J. Cirincione, M.D., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
La Vonna L. Vice (Marvin Ellin, Ellin & Baker, Baltimore, Md., on brief), for plaintiffs-appellants.
Kathleen Howard Meredith (Laura C. McWeeney, Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, Baltimore, Md., Conrad W. Varner, Strite, Schildt & Varner, Hagerstown, Md., on brief), for defendants-appellees.
Before MURNAGHAN and CHAPMAN, Circuit Judges, and McMILLAN, United States District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.
On July 16, 1985, Janet L. Rowland and Donald Rowland filed with the Maryland Health Claims Arbitration Office (HCAO) a malpractice proceeding against five defendants who are medical doctors. The step was taken in accordance with the Maryland Health Care Malpractice Claims subtitle of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland. Md.Cts. & Jud.Proc.Code Ann. Secs. 3-2A-01 to -09. That subtitle establishes as a pre-condition to legal action in court the institution of a medical malpractice proceeding. Md.Cts. & Jud.Proc.Code Ann. Sec. 3-2A-02; Davison v. Sinai Hosp. of Baltimore, 462 F.Supp. 778 (D.Md.1978), aff'd, 617 F.2d 361 (4th Cir.1980); see Ott v. Kaiser-Georgetown Community Health Plan, Inc., 309 Md. 641, 646, 526 A.2d 46, 49 (1987).
Thereafter, following a summary judgment on May 6, 1987 by the HCAO for the defendants on the grounds that limitations had expired, plaintiffs filed a notice of rejection with the HCAO on June 12, 1987. Three days later, plaintiffs, alleging diversity jurisdiction, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland a civil action to nullify the HCAO decision in favor of the defendants. 1
Judicial review under a standard akin to de novo review of the HCAO decision was called for. Md.Cts. & Jud.Proc.Code Ann. Sec. 3-2A-06. Review is not precisely de novo since the HCAO decision has continuing vitality. The court on preliminary motion may modify, correct or vacate the award if it was procured by fraud or misconduct, occasioned by prejudice, or if the HCAO had exceeded its authority or committed a mistake of law or fact appearing on the face of the award. Md.Cts. & Jud.Proc.Code Ann. Secs. 3-2A-06(c), 3-223, 3-224. Otherwise, the award is admissible in any subsequent judicial proceeding and is presumed correct. Section 3-2A-06(d). Not only does the HCAO award have continuing vitality, but so do constituent elements of the proceeding. For example when Donald Rowland's deposition in the HCAO proceeding was taken on December 15, 1986, it became admissible in the subsequent judicial proceeding. Section 3-2A-06(e).
On June 15, 1987 when the complaint was filed with the clerk of the Maryland federal district court, the plaintiffs and the defendants were diverse. 2 However, they were admittedly not diverse on July 16, 1985 when the HCAO proceeding first was filed.
The question of controlling importance, of course, is which of those two filings: the HCAO filing or the filing of the complaint in federal court commenced the action for purposes of determining the existence of diversity jurisdiction. It is well settled that diversity is judged as of the time of commencement of suit. Mollan v. Torrance, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 537, 6 L.Ed. 154 (1824); Smith v. Sperling, 354 U.S. 91, 77 S.Ct. 1112, 1 L.Ed.2d 1205 (1957); Mullins v. Beatrice Pocahontas Co., 489 F.2d 260 (4th Cir.1974). We must decide which filing commenced the suit. The district court ruled that the HCAO filing commenced it, found that on the date of commencement the parties were not diverse, and therefore dismissed the case for want of subject matter jurisdiction.
The district judge proceeded from the view that an action must commence for all purposes on a single date. He first found that the HCAO filing commenced the action for limitations purposes. He then stated that, because of a current disinclination to expand diversity jurisdiction, he should not hold that there was commencement of the action on two different occasions, once when the HCAO action was initiated on July 16, 1985, for limitation purposes, and again when the federal district court suit was filed on June 15, 1987 for purposes of determination of diversity.
There may be some doubts as to the correctness of the district court's logic. An action can commence on more than one date because of the holding in Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938). Federal courts sitting in diversity generally apply state statutes of limitations. Ragan v. Merchants Transfer & Warehouse Co., 337 U.S. 530, 69 S.Ct. 1233, 93 L.Ed. 1520 (1949). Thus, a federal action may commence for limitations purposes upon whatever event the state has defined for that purpose, e.g., the date of service of the complaint. Yet for all other purposes the federal action will commence under the applicable Federal Rule of Civil Procedure, Rule 3, that states that an action commences when the complaint is filed. However much it linguistically offends one's first impression, in legal principle, there could indeed be two different times of commencement.
However, even if the reasoning employed by the district court should prove to be slightly faulty, he was on the right track and the result remains the same. We agree with the conclusion that the present action commenced for purposes of determining diversity when the HCAO proceeding was filed. Federal courts apply federal rules of procedure, both those promulgated in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as well as wholly judge made procedural rules, unless the Erie doctrine commands otherwise. Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965); Ely, The Irrepressible Myth of Erie, 87 Harv.L.Rev. 693 (1974). The present case requires us to decide which of two filings commenced an action in federal court for purposes of determining the existence of diversity jurisdiction. That is a purely federal procedural question, since no state substantive right is involved. Hanna, 380 U.S. at 471, 85 S.Ct. at 1143; 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2072.
Looking at the situation solely from a federal point of view, what occurred on July 16, 1985, the bringing of the HCAO action, happened to amount for federal purposes to a commencement of the cause of action. 3 Two reasons lead us to that conclusion. One, the HCAO proceeding continued to have effect when and after the case took on a completely judicial aspect. Two, submission to the HCAO is a condition precedent to filing suit in federal court as well as to state court filing. The HCAO filing then is the first filing necessary to institute a federal civil action. We hold that the HCAO filing commenced the suit for purposes of determining diversity jurisdiction. At the time of filing the HCAO proceeding on July 16, 1985, there was no diversity.
Consequently, dismissal was, therefore, appropriate.
AFFIRMED.
The majority would hold that, for purposes of deciding diversity of citizenship of the parties, this action was "commenced" by the filing of a claim with a Maryland state administrative agency, rather than by "filing a complaint with the [federal] court," as required by Rule 3 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
This suit is a medical malpractice action by plaintiffs Janet Rowland and Donald Rowland against five medical doctors. Under Maryland statute, the Rowlands were required to file a claim with the Maryland Health Care Claims Arbitration Office as a precondition to filing a suit in either state or federal court. Md.Cts. & Jud.Proc.Code Ann. Sec. 3-2A-02; Davison v. Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, 462 F.Supp. 778, 780 (D.Md.1978), aff'd, 617 F.2d 361 (4th Cir.1980). The Health Care Claims Arbitration Office ("HCAO") is an administrative agency of the State of Maryland. It is not a state or federal court.
The Rowlands filed their claim with the Maryland HCAO on July 16, 1985. At the time they filed their claim, both the Rowlands and the defendants were residents of Maryland.
On May 6, 1987, the HCAO granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on the ground that the claim was untimely under the three-year statute of limitations applicable to medical malpractice claims against health care providers in Maryland. Md.Cts. & Jud.Proc.Code Ann. Sec. 5-109.
On June 15, 1987, plaintiffs initiated this suit by filing their complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Plaintiffs allege that they were residents of West Virginia at the time they filed their complaint in federal court. Although defendants dispute the fact of plaintiffs' West Virginia residence on June 15, 1987, the court below assumed it. We likewise assume that, for the purpose of deciding this appeal, the parties were of diverse citizenship on June 15, 1987.
The district court dismissed the suit on the basis that the suit commenced for diversity purposes on July 16, 1985, the date the claim was filed with the Maryland state agency (HCAO), rather than on June 15, 1987, the date plaintiffs filed their complaint in United States District Court. The district judge observed that the filing of the HCAO claim tolled the state statute of limitations. He dismissed the case because he concluded that there should not be two dates for commencement of suit, and because he was concerned not to "expand" diversity jurisdiction.
As the majority observes, this reasoning is not supported by the law. Federal courts sitting in diversity jurisdiction are bound to apply state law in determining what event tolls a state statute of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
National Mortg. Warehouse, LLC v. Trikeriotis, CIV.A. CCB-01-3275.
...Lovejoy v. Irelan, 17 Md. 525 (1861)).) In a diversity case, however, the question of joinder is one of federal law. Rowland v. Patterson, 852 F.2d 108, 110 (4th Cir.1988); Muirfield (Delaware), L.P. v. Pitts, 17 F.Supp.2d 600, 607 (W.D.La.1998); Wright v. Schebler, 37 F.R.D. 319, 320 (S.D.......
-
Wm. H. McGee & Co. v. Liebherr America, Inc.
...Motors Corp., 893 F.2d 513, 516 (2d Cir.1990); Mullen v. Sears, Roebuck, & Co., 887 F.2d 615, 616-18 (5th Cir.1989); Rowland v. Patterson, 852 F.2d 108, 110 (4th Cir.1988), on reh'g, 882 F.2d 97 (4th Cir.1989); State of Wis. Inv. Bd. v. Plantation Square Assocs., 761 F.Supp. 1569, 1573 (S.D......
-
Gattison v. Shurnight
...limitations provisions in any negligence case arising in South Carolina considered under diversity jurisdiction. See Rowland v. Patterson, 852 F.2d 108, 110 (4th Cir. 1988). Under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 15-3-530; 15-3-535, the statute of limitations on such negligencePage 7actions is three years......
-
Mayo v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
...will apply federal rules that are procedural, such as the standards for a Rule 12(b)(6) motion discussed above. Rowland v. Patterson, 852 F.2d 108, 110 (4th III. DISCUSSION A. Count I: Breach of Contract Plaintiff raises her breach of contract claim against Defendants Wells Fargo and FHLMC,......