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Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Judges Disagree Regarding Substantial Compliance and Affidavit of Merit Statute in Med Mal Case

In Ferder v. Scott, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District (opinion authored by Judge Robert G. Dowd, Jr.), reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a medical malpractice lawsuit for failure to comply with the affidavit of merit requirement in § 538.225, RSMo.  The appellate court held the plaintiff’s affidavit, which complied with the statute in every way except that it combined related defendants into a single affidavit, substantially complied with the statute and was sufficient to avoid dismissal.   

The plaintiff sued three defendants (a doctor, the doctor’s practice group, and a hospital) but filed only a single affidavit as to all defendants.  The plaintiff’s claims against the corporate defendants were premised solely on vicarious liability for the doctor’s conduct as an alleged employee.  The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her claim against the hospital.  Later, the two remaining defendants moved to dismiss on the grounds that the single affidavit was deficient because it did not strictly comply with the mandatory language contained in § 538.225.4, RSMo, which states: “A separate affidavit shall be filed for each defendant named in the petition . . . .”  The trial court agreed and dismissed the case, without prejudice, pursuant to § 538.225.6.  The plaintiff appealed.  

On appeal, the plaintiff conceded the affidavit was technically deficient and did not strictly comply with the statute because there was only one affidavit and not three separate affidavits.  However, plaintiff argued she substantially complied with the statute because the affidavit was otherwise compliant and timely and verified her claims were not frivolous.  She also argued that because the doctor was an employee of the practice group and because she alleged only a vicarious liability claim against the group, the substance of her single affidavit satisfied the purpose and intent of the statute with respect to both defendants.  In other words, the affidavit complied in all substantive ways but not in form, and a separate affidavit for the group would have been nothing more than a duplicate of the one already filed with no additional information.    

The appellate court reviewed Missouri case law analyzing § 538.225.  The court acknowledged no Missouri court had ever found substantial compliance with the affidavit statute, but Missouri courts had not foreclosed the possibility that a plaintiff could survive a motion to dismiss through substantial compliance under a certain situation.  The court found the plaintiff’s case, under its own unique set of facts, presented that situation.  The court distinguished the various Missouri appellate decisions rejecting substantial compliance arguments as factually dissimilar in that the plaintiffs in those cases failed to file a timely affidavit.  Thus, the court reversed and remanded to the trial court.   

Judge Kurt Odenwald authored a dissent in which he expressed sympathy towards the plaintiff’s position, and agreed the affidavit substantially complied with the statute. But he did not believe the court had the discretion to disregard the express directive of the statute and make a finding of substantial compliance.  That is because the language of the statute is clear and unambiguous, and Missouri law permits substantial compliance with a statute only under a statutory directive to construe a statute liberally or under a statute that expressly allows for substantial compliance, neither of which was present.  Further, construing the statute to permit only one affidavit would necessarily render section 538.225.4 meaningless, and Missouri courts are not permitted to interpret a statute in a way that renders any portion meaningless.  Without a direct mandate from the Supreme Court of Missouri, Judge Odenwald was unwilling to diverge from the express language of the statute and thus dissented.       

On July 11, 2018, the defendants filed an Application for Transfer to the Supreme Court of Missouri asking the Court to address the conflict between the appellate court’s novel application of the substantial compliance theory to § 538.225 on the one hand, and the legislative intent of the statute, and all prior Missouri appellate decisions, including one Supreme Court decision, on the other.  The defendants also argue that the ruling destroys the bright-line nature of the statute and creates a test that will inevitably lead to vastly different applications and inconsistent opinions that will cause confusion among the courts and parties.  The application is currently pending.