Suburban Hospital, Inc. v. Health Resources

• Decision Date: 01 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 562,562
• Citation: 726 A.2d 807,125 Md. App. 579
• Parties: SUBURBAN HOSPITAL, INC. v. MARYLAND HEALTH RESOURCES PLANNING COMMISSION.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

726 A.2d 807

125 Md. App. 579

SUBURBAN HOSPITAL, INC. v. MARYLAND HEALTH RESOURCES PLANNING COMMISSION.

No. 562, Sept. Term, 1998.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

April 1, 1999.

Jack C. Tranter (Thomas C. Dame and Gallagher, Evelius & Jones, LLP, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Suellen Wideman, Assistant Attorney General (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, and Margaret Ann Nolan, Assistant Attorney General, on the brief), for appellee.

Before SALMON, EYLER and KENNEY, JJ.

KENNEY, Judge.

Appellant, Suburban Hospital, Inc. ("Suburban"), sued appellee, the Maryland Health Resources Planning Commission ("the Commission"), in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, seeking to void the Commission's adoption of the Open Heart Surgery Section of the State Health Plan (the "proposed OHS Section"). Suburban alleged that the Commission violated the Open Meetings Act, Md. Code (1984, 1995 Repl.Vol., 1998 Supp.), § 10-501 et. seq. of the State Government Article ("S.G."), by deliberating about the proposed OHS Section in a meeting closed to the public. The Commission moved to dismiss Suburban's complaint or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. After a hearing on January 6, 1998, the circuit court granted the motion for summary judgment by Order on January 14, 1998. Suburban appeals from the circuit court's decision.

Facts

The circuit court succinctly explained the factual background to this case:

The Maryland Health Resources Planning Commission not only establishes the State's health plan, but it also reviews requests by health facilities to provide specific health services. Md. Health General Code Ann. § 19-101, et seq. According to the statutory scheme, the State health plan must include (1) a description of the components that should comprise the health care system; (2) the goals and policies for Maryland's health care system; (3) identification of unmet needs, excess services, minimum access criteria, and services to be regionalized; (4) an assessment of the financial resources required and available for the health care system; and (5) the methodologies, standards, and criteria for certificate of need review. Md. Health General Code Ann. § 19-114(a)(2).

On April 1, 1996, Suburban and Holy Cross Hospital of Silver Spring, Inc. filed letters of intent in which they proposed establishing new open heart surgery programs in the Washington Metropolitan Region. On September 27, 1996, they filed the appropriate Certificate of Need applications. The Commission, relying upon the notion that there was not a need for additional open heart surgery programs in the area, denied both applications. On June 18, 1997, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City reversed the Commission's decision and ordered the Commission to review the merits of the Suburban and Holy Cross applications "in a prompt and timely fashion." While an appeal of the Court's order is pending in the Court of Special Appeals, Suburban filed a modified application with the Commission.

Subsequently, the Commission updated and revised the State Health Plan Chapter on Cardiac Surgery and Therapeutic Catheterization Services. After extensive public comment, several public hearings and finally publication in the Maryland Register, the Commission considered the proposed Open Heart Chapter regulation for promulgation as a final rule at its November 11, 1997 meeting.

After discussion of the proposed Open Heart Surgery ("OHS") Section at the meeting, Commissioner Joan Harris moved for the adoption of the OHS Section as proposed, a version that would have precluded approval of a new open heart surgery program in the Washington metropolitan region (the "Region"). Before any action was taken on that motion, Commissioner Marvin Schneider, M.D., proposed an amendment (the "Schneider Amendment") to alter the method of measuring open heart surgery program capacity in the proposed OHS Section, thereby permitting additional open heart programs in the Region if certain criteria were met.

After more discussion, Chairman George S. Malouf, M.D., called for a vote on the Schneider Amendment. After six of the nine commissioners voted in favor of its adoption, James Stanton, the Commission's Executive Director, interrupted the vote to urge Commissioners who voted for the Schneider Amendment to reconsider.

Without finishing the vote, the Commissioners discussed the possible need to republish the entire proposed OHS Section in the Maryland Register as a proposed rule if the Schneider Amendment was adopted, and asked C. Frederic Ryland, an Assistant Attorney General and General Counsel to the Commission, if adding the Schneider Amendment would necessitate republishing the entire proposed OHS Section. Mr. Ryland stated that the promulgation process would have to be repeated. Several Commissioners and staff members who opposed the Schneider Amendment opined that adding the Amendment would require additional public hearings. Chairman Malouf eventually called for a second vote on the Schneider Amendment. Two Commissioners changed their position, resulting in a five to four vote against the Amendment.

Commissioner Schneider requested that the Commission stay the execution of its decision until Mr. Ryland could provide a "more considered thoughtful opinion" about the procedural ramifications of altering the proposed OHS Section. Commissioner Ruth Spector then moved for reconsideration of the vote that rejected the Schneider Amendment. Before action was taken on that motion, the Commissioners unanimously voted to meet in a closed "executive session" to obtain advice from counsel. The Commission held a thirty-minute closed session. The meeting minutes do not detail any of the events of the closed session.

After the Commission returned to public session, Chairman Malouf brought up the pending motion to reconsider, which Commissioner Spector immediately withdrew. Chairman Malouf stated that the Schneider Amendment was defeated and that the Commission would consider the original motion, i.e., the proposed OHS Section, without any amendment. The Commission then voted seven to two to approve the unamended proposed OHS Section.

Commissioner Walter Hall immediately stated:

Mr. Chairman, I would like to request that we ask the staff to consider a petition to amend the section of the plan and examine a number of issues specifically focused on the hospitals and environmental suburbs of the District of Columbia[,] issues such as the relationship of the rates set by our own cost review commission for the Maryland hospitals, vis-vis [sic] the costs and charges within the District of Columbia hospitals. Also issues such as an analysis of what the region really is as far as the hospitals in the Maryland suburbs of the District of Columbia that are located in Montgomery and Prince George's County and so forth and I think there will be a number of additional analysis [sic] that the staff may want to consider as they look at this issue and I think that I would like to put forward that request and ask the staff if they would consider that.

[Chairman Malouf]: Smokey [Mr. Stanton], did you get the petition in writing?

Mr. Stanton: Yes, I did.

The request was unanimously approved.

Suburban sued the Commission, alleging that, instead of merely receiving legal advice in the closed meeting, the Commission violated Maryland's Open Meetings Act by discussing substantively the Schneider Amendment, the proposed OHS Section, and a petition process to assess the need for additional OHS programs.

Questions Presented

Suburban presents three questions for our review, which we have re-worded and consolidated:

1. Must Suburban demonstrate that Commission members knew they were violating the Open Meetings Act ... to maintain an enforcement action under State Government Article § 10-510?

2. Did Suburban satisfy its burden of demonstrating sufficient grounds to avoid summary judgment?

We answer the first question in the negative, and the second in the positive. Accordingly, we shall reverse.

Discussion

A trial court shall enter judgment in favor of or against a party moving for summary judgment if the motion and response show that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that the party in whose favor judgment is entered is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Md. Rule 2-501(e). When considering a summary judgment motion, a trial court makes no findings of fact. Dobbins et ux. v. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, 338 Md. 341, 345, 658 A.2d 675 (1995). The trial court decides whether a genuine issue of material fact exists to prevent the entry of summary judgment. Fearnow v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Maryland, et al., 104 Md.App. 1, 48, 655 A.2d 1 (1995), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, 342 Md. 363, 676 A.2d 65 (1996). When reviewing a trial court's decision to grant a summary judgment motion, we examine "simply whether the trial court was legally correct." Beatty v. Trailmaster Products, Inc., et al., 330 Md. 726, 737, 625 A.2d 1005 (1993) (citing Heat & Power v. Air Products, 320 Md. 584, 591, 578 A.2d 1202 (1990)

). An appellate court ordinarily should review a grant of summary judgment only on the grounds relied upon by the trial court.¹

Maryland Rule 8-131(a); Blades v. Woods, 338 Md. 475, 478, 659 A.2d 872 (1995); Gross et ux. v. Sussex Inc., et al., 332 Md. 247, 254 n. 3, 630 A.2d 1156 (1993).

A grant of a summary judgment motion is appropriate only when the moving party meets a two-part test. Fearnow, 104 Md. App. at 48, 655 A.2d 1 (citing Gross, 332 Md. at 255,

630 A.2d 1156).

The movant for summary judgment must (i) clearly demonstrate the absence of any genuine issue of material fact, and (ii) demonstrate that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

To satisfy the first part of this test, the moving party must present the material facts necessary to obtain judgment and demonstrate that there is no dispute as to any of those facts. A

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