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Frazier v. East Tennessee Baptist Hospital9/28/2001
On May 8, 1998, plaintiff, in her capacity as estate administrator, brought this medical malpractice claim against defendant East Tennessee Baptist Hospital and Mark W. Jackson, M.D., in Knox County Circuit Court. On August 7, 1998, plaintiff moved for and was granted a voluntary dismissal without prejudice as to East Tennessee Baptist Hospital only. On August 5, 1999, plaintiff, seeking to rejoin East Tennessee Baptist Hospital as a defendant, filed a motion to amend the complaint and a proposed amended complaint. The motion to amend was granted and an order was entered on August 10, 1999, rejoining East Tennessee Baptist Hospital as a defendant. East Tennessee Baptist Hospital later filed a motion to dismiss, claiming that the period of limitation for re-filing under Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-1-105 had expired on August 7, 1999. The defendant's motion to dismiss was granted, and East Tennessee Baptist Hospital was dismissed from the case. Plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the trial court's decision. The issue before this Court is whether the filing of a motion to amend and a proposed amended complaint "commenced a new action" within the meaning of Rule 3 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and Section 28-1-105 of Tennessee Code Annotated (the "saving statute"). We hold that filing a motion to amend and a proposed amended complaint constitute commencement of a new action. Therefore, the plaintiff has fulfilled the requirements of the saving statute, and the judgments of the trial court and the Court of Appeals are reversed and this cause is remanded to the circuit court.
Tenn. R. App. P. 11 Appeal by Permission; Judgments of the trial court and Court of Appeals Reversed and Remanded to the trial court.
Frank F. Drowota, III, C.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which E. Riley Anderson, Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., Janice M. Holder, William M. Barker, JJ., joined.
OPINION
I. Factual and Procedural Background
On May 8, 1998, the plaintiff, as Administrator of the Estate of Josie Mae Blalock Pickens, filed her complaint in this medical malpractice case in Knox County Circuit Court against East Tennessee Baptist Hospital, Inc. ("Baptist"), and Mark W. Jackson, M.D. On August 7, 1998, the plaintiff filed for voluntary dismissal of her claims against East Tennessee Baptist Hospital, and on the same day, the order granting the voluntary dismissal was entered. On August 5, 1999, the plaintiff filed a motion to amend the original complaint and a proposed amended complaint with the Knox County Circuit Court. On August 10, 1999, an order was entered granting the plaintiff's motion to amend, thereby rejoining Baptist as a defendant. On September 20, 1999, Baptist filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure 12.02(6) and 12.03, arguing that the plaintiff's action was untimely because the order granting the motion to amend was filed two days after expiration of the one-year statutory period that allows commencement of a new action after a voluntary dismissal, Tennessee Code Annotated § 28-1-105 (the "saving statute"). Baptist argued that filing the motion to amend did not constitute commencement of a new action as required by the saving statute.
On January 11, 2000, Baptist's motion to dismiss was granted. On appeal, the Court of Appeals determined that Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 15.03, not the saving statute, applied. Therefore, because there was no "misnomer" or "mistake" requiring re-joining of the defendant under Rule 15.03, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment dismissing the plaintiff's cause of action against the defendant, finding it untimely.
II.
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