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Roane v. Washington County Hospital3/29/2001
The procedural questions raised in this appeal stem from a medical malpractice claim. Appellant, Charles H. Roane, alleged that appellees, Washington County Hospital and Dr. A.F. Abdullah, injured his right arm during surgery for his carpal tunnel syndrome. The Circuit Court for Washington County dismissed the claim pursuant to the law of the case doctrine. We affirm the dismissal, but for the reason that res judicata barred the claim.
Background
Roane filed his first medical malpractice complaint on April 29, 1996 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The claim was docketed as Civil Action No. B-96-1322. Appellees moved to dismiss the complaint because Roane failed to submit it for arbitration as required by Maryland Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, ยง 3-2A-04, and Davison v. Sinai Hospital, 462 F. Supp. 778 (D. Md. 1978), aff'd, 617 F.2d 361 (4th Cir. 1980). Roane then voluntarily dismissed the complaint, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(i).
Roane refiled the claim in the Maryland Health Claims Arbitration Office on September 9, 1996. Following nearly two years of discovery, the parties agreed to waive arbitration and to pursue the matter in the Circuit Court for Washington County. True to his original instinct, however, on September 21, 1998, Roane filed the second complaint in the federal district court, not the State circuit court. This complaint was docketed as Civil Action No. CCB-98-3191. It mirrored the first federal complaint.
Appellees moved to dismiss the second complaint on the ground that Roane's filing in federal court contravened the forum selection clause of the parties' waiver agreement, which set the case for State circuit court. They requested dismissal of the action, or, in the alternative, transfer of the case to the State court. Following a conference call with the parties, the district court accepted appellees' argument and, on December 9, 1998, ordered the case " ransferred to the Circuit Court for Washington County." The circuit court "received" the case and designated it as Civil Action No. 21-C-98-005882 OT. The parties construed this transfer as a de facto refiling of the suit in State court.
At this point, the case proceeded on two different tracks. Roane pursued the claim in federal court by appealing the district court's transfer. In circuit court, he moved, unsuccessfully, to stay the circuit court proceedings during the pendency of the federal appeal. Appellees answered Roane's complaint in circuit court, and the parties prepared for trial. The circuit court also handled a number of substantive matters, including a motion for summary judgment and two motions for intervention. At the federal level, on September 10, 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the plain language of the Health Care Malpractice Claims Act precluded the forum selection clause agreed to by the parties. Accordingly, it vacated the district court's transfer of the case to State court and remanded the matter to the district court for further proceedings.
Dr. Abdullah then moved to dismiss the suit in circuit court. He argued that the U.S. Court of Appeals' decision rendered the State action invalid, and that Roane's pursuance of the same cause of action in both State and federal court constituted improper claim splitting. In November 1999, Roane voluntarily dismissed his second federal complaint, Civil Action No. CCB 98-3191. The parties dispute whether this dismissal was at Roane's behest, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(i), or by order of the federal court, pursuant to Rule 41(a)(2). We note that the dismissal paper was drafted by Roan
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