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Afamefune v. Suburban Hospital3/17/2005
We granted certiorari in this case to decide whether the Maryland Health Care Malpractice Claims Act, Maryland Code (1974, 2002 Repl. Vol.) ยงยง 3-2A-01 through 3-2A-09 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article ("the Act") applies when a hospital patient, alleging that she was assaulted and raped by another patient, sues the hospital for negligence in failing to provide for her security while hospitalized. If it does, then the claim must be filed with the Health Claims Arbitration Office; if it does not, the claim is appropriately filed in the Circuit Court.
Appellant Sophia Afamefune, individually, and as next friend and mother of Stephanie Afamefune, the other appellant, Stephanie, (collectively "the appellants"), filed, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, a complaint sounding in negligence against Suburban Hospital, Inc., the appellee. Pointing out that claims for medical injury, as a condition precedent to filing an action in court, must be submitted to non-binding arbitration by being filed with the Health Claims Arbitration Office and arguing that the appellant's claims were for medical injury, the appellee moved to dismiss the appellants' complaint. Agreeing with the appellee, the trial court granted its motion. For reasons hereinafter to be set forth, we shall reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court.
I.
Stephanie, a fourteen year old minor, was, on September 26, 2001, admitted as a patient at Suburban Hospital for injuries sustained when she jumped from a moving automobile. On October 2, 2001, while a patient on the psychiatric ward, being treated for depression, she was assaulted and raped or attempted to be raped by a male patient. The appellants filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County against the appellee. In the complaint, they alleged that the appellee breached the duties it owed Stephanie "to exercise reasonable care for her protection and ... to protect her from being assaulted and raped," resulting in "severe physical and emotional pain and suffering which may be permanent" and which has required and will continue to require medical attention, with the necessary financial expenditures and anticipated financial losses. The appellee filed a motion to dismiss and argued in support of the motion the appellants' failure to file their claims pursuant to the Maryland Health Care Malpractice Claims Act, with the Health Claims Arbitration Office. The Circuit Court granted the appellee's motion and dismissed the appellants' complaint, with prejudice and without leave to amend. Noting that "the Health Claims Arbitration Act was designed to cover health care providers, and that generally has been given a rather broad perspective," the Court reasoned:
"It cannot be ignored that Suburban is a medical facility, and would come under the general umbrella of health care providers.
"That statute is designed for the purpose of bringing these matters to a preliminary matter of resolution before it comes to court, and I am satisfied that the language mandates that this - even though it is a hospital and the theory of recovery is negligence as opposed to medical malpractice, which is medical negligence - I feel that the defendant's argument is the stronger of the two. That it should be dismissed for failure to have been pursued in the proper fashion of the Health Claims Arbitration Act."
The Appellants noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. Prior to any proceedings in the intermediate appellate court, on our own motion, we issued the writ of certiorari, see 372 Md. 684, 814 A. 2d 570 (2003), to consider this important issue of public interest.
II.
It is well settled that,
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