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Romero v. Schulze3/19/1999
ve for failure to pay taxes, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State.
4. The Wyoming Board of Medicine responded to the inquiry of Romero's counsel about Dr. Schulze and indicated he was a licensed physician in Wyoming with an office address of 2012 West Elm Street, Rawlins, Wyoming 82301 C the same street address as the Wagon Circle Medical Clinic.
5. When Plaintiff Romero visited Dr. Schulze for post-surgical care in his private office, she was given forms to fill out with the words "Wagon Circle Medical Clinic" and the separate address of the clinic at the top of the forms.
6. Several of the clinic's forms authorized payment of insurance or worker ['s] compensation benefits directly to Wagon Circle Medical Clinic.
7. No mention of Memorial Hospital of Carbon County was contained on any of the forms given to Plaintiff Romero to fill out. In fact, the Wagon Circle Medical Clinic "Conditions of Service" form signed by Mrs. Romero prior to her first post-operative visit with Dr. Schulze in August, 1994, stated, in part:
"The bill for services is an agreement between you and the clinic." (emphasis added).
8. The medical records pertaining to Plaintiff Romero's care by Dr. Schulze were created and maintained by him at the Wagon Circle Medical Clinic, separate and apart from the records maintained at the hospital.
9. During the time Dr. Schulze was providing care and treatment to Romero, he sent no correspondence or billing statements which in any way indicated that he was an employee of Memorial Hospital of Carbon County.
10. During the period of his care and treatment of Romero, Dr. Schulze did not wear any identification which would identify him as an employee of Memorial Hospital. (Record citations omitted.)
The district court found that Romero had been placed on notice of Dr. Schulze's status as a public employee when she received his answer on October 7, 1996, in which he "clearly asserted his status as a public employee." Explaining that Wyoming is a "notice" jurisdiction, the district court opined that pleadings are only required to alert the adverse party of what it might expect and contain the operative facts that will give fair notice of the claim. The district court decided that, because October 7, 1996, was within two years of the discovery of the alleged act, error, or omission, Romero forfeited her cause of action by failing to serve a notice of her claim sometime in the five or so weeks that followed.
We disagree with the district court's finding that Dr. Schulze's "pleading was sufficiently specific to provide [Romero] with notice of the intended defense, and [Romero] had adequate time thereafter to file the required notice of claim." To the contrary, the affirmative defense merely informed Romero that Dr. Schulze was claiming to be an employee of the hospital at the time he filed his answer. In light of all the indications that Dr. Schulze was an independent contractor, he should have pleaded an affirmative defense clearly stating that, at the time of his alleged negligent conduct, he was an employee of the hospital. We hold that, as a matter of law, Romero did not have sufficient notice of Dr. Schulze's status as a public employee until November 19, 1996, when she received the discovery responses that clearly evidenced an employment relationship existed at the time Dr. Schulze rendered treatment for her injured hand. Dr. Schulze, therefore, was not entitled to a judgment as a matter of law, and the summary judgment in his favor is reversed.
B. Order Granting Dismissal
Romero asserts that she provided timely notice to the hospital of her
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