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Adamson v. Correctional Medical Services6/14/2000
ch the Division has no jurisdiction, like the medical contractors. Therefore, for instance, an inmate who claims that his tier correctional officer improperly refused to allow him to go to the institutional hospital must, pursuant to the directive, avail himself to the ARP process, but an inmate alleging negligence by a doctor employed by a medical contractor may not do the same.
The position of the Attorney General's Office is consistent with the DOC Directives relating to the Administrative Remedy Procedure, as well as to the CSA and PLA requirements. The DOC Directives present in the record of this case are aimed at resolving prisoner grievances against the DOC, its officers, and its employees. There is no mention whatsoever of private contractors or the procedures to be observed should a claim of medical malpractice be submitted by prisoners against such a contractor.
D.
We hold that a plain reading of the PLA and CSA, meshed with the legislative history and the IGO's interpretation of its role in prisoner claims against private contractors, overwhelmingly demonstrate that the PLA administrative remedy exhaustion requirement does not apply to lawsuits filed by inmates against private contractors alleging a claim of medical malpractice. We cannot require the exhaustion of an administrative remedy process that is inapplicable to a prisoner's alleged grievance.
The PLA and CSA are devoid of any reference to private contractors or businesses. Nothing in the statutes would lend the slightest hint that the legislature intended the statute's exhaustion requirement be as all encompassing as Respondent alleges. PLA § 5-1001(c)'s definition of a "civil action" references solely actions against state employees for petitions of mandamus, tort claims, and civil rights violations. Civil actions as they relate to tort claims in particular are defined as " ny tort claim against a custodian, the custodian's officers or employees, or any employee or official of the Department [of Public Safety and Correctional Services]." Furthermore, the IGO is specifically confined to address and investigate complaints "against an official or employee of the Division of Correction." CSA § 10-206. Respondent is not, nor does it claim to be, an official or employee of the DOC, or a custodian of Petitioner. Respondent likewise does not argue that it is a state actor for any purpose.
We add that there is no mention in the PLA's legislative history of curtailing prisoner malpractice lawsuits against private contractors or private entities. The statute was designed to prevent or inhibit the influx of prisoner claims against State officials and employees in Maryland's state courts and to lessen the burden on the Attorney General in defending such prisoner claims. It was not intended apparently to shield private medical contractors from malpractice claims by prisoners or as an aid in the pre-litigation discovery or non-judicial resolution of such claims. While it is true that the Maryland courts have recognized that the absence of express statutory language granting authority to an administrative agency is not dispositive of whether that agency has such authority, its absence from the statute is nonetheless a factor which may be considered. See Lussier v. Maryland Racing Comm'n, 100 Md. App. 190, 203-04, 640 A.2d 259, 266 (1994), aff'd, 343 Md. 681, 684 A.2d 804 (1994). See also McCarthy v. Madigan, 503 U.S. 140, 154, 112 S. Ct. 1081, 1091, 117 L.Ed.2d 291, 305 (1992) ("the absence of any monetary remedy in the grievance procedure also weighs heavily against imposing an exhaustion requirement").
None of the federal cases cited by Respondent support the proposition that medical
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