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Doyle v. Kuch5/30/2000
Appellant challenges the district court's grant of a Minn. R. Civ. P. 12.02(e) motion to dismiss her dental malpractice claim against respondent as barred by the statute of limitations. Because we are required to draw all inferences in favor of appellant's complaint, which alleges that negligence occurred within two years of the date she commenced suit, the statute of limitations does not bar her claim. Accordingly, we reverse.
FACTS
On May 6, 1999, appellant Rosemary Doyle filed a complaint alleging dental malpractice by respondent Edward V. Kuch, D.M.D. The alleged negligence corresponds to Kuch's treatment of five of Doyle's teeth from 1986 to May 8, 1997. In his answer to the complaint, Kuch denied all of the allegations and asserted the two-year statute of limitations, Minn. Stat. ยง 541.07 (1998), as an affirmative defense. Kuch followed his answer with a motion to dismiss plaintiff's complaint, or in the alternative, for summary judgment.
Kuch argued that Doyle's claim was time-barred by operation of the "single-act" exception to the medical malpractice statute of limitations because the last negligent act specifically alleged took place on April 24, 1997, the date he extracted tooth number three. Doyle countered that her claim was timely under the two-year statute of limitations in effect when proceedings were commenced because the negligence continued through her last visit to Kuch's clinic on May 8, 1997. Alternatively, Doyle asserted that her claim fell under the newly amended four-year statute of limitations, effective August 1, 1999. Doyle requested that any dismissal be without prejudice, but did not challenge the district court's jurisdiction over respondent's motion.
The district court treated Kuch's motion as a motion to dismiss, concluded that the two-year statute of limitations applied, and determined that the "single-act" exception operated to set April 24, 1997, as the termination date of Doyle's treatment. Because Doyle commenced the action on May 6, 1999, more than two years after the April 24, 1997 extraction, the district court held that the two-year statute of limitations barred her malpractice claim and dismissed the action with prejudice. Doyle appeals that ruling.
ISSUES
I. Did the district court have subject-matter jurisdiction over respondent's motion to dismiss?
Did the district court err by granting respondent's motion to dismiss?
ANALYSIS
I.
Doyle first claims that Minn. R. Civ. P. 12.02 deprived the district court of jurisdiction to rule on the motion to dismiss. A party may challenge subject-matter jurisdiction for the first time on appeal, and we review the question de novo. Rasmussen v. Sauer, 597 N.W.2d 328, 330 (Minn. App. 1999), review denied (Minn. Sept. 14, 1999).
Rule 12.02 governs defensive motions, including motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. See Minn. R. Civ. P. 12.02(e). Rule 12.02 provides in relevant part that
motion for making any of [the defenses under Rule 12.02] shall be made before pleading if a further pleading is permitted. Id.
Kuch filed his motion to dismiss six days after filing a responsive pleading -- his answer.
Although Doyle correctly points out the error, a timing violation under rule 12.02 does not deprive the district court of authority to rule on the motion. The Minnesota Rules of Civil Procedure grant the district court the discretion to review a motion notwithstanding the time limitations imposed by rule 12.02. See Minn. R. Civ. P. 6.02 (permitting district courts to extend time limits imposed "b
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