Duke v. Cmty. Health Connections, Inc.
Duke v. Cmty. Health Connections, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
ORDER AND MEMORANDUM ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS (Docket No. 10)
HILLMAN, D.J.
Gordon Duke ("Plaintiff") brought a negligence claim against the United States of America ("Defendant") under the Federal Torts Claims Act ("FTCA") claiming that Dr. Terry F. Osborne, II ("Dr. Osborne") negligently prescribed him amphetamines, causing injury and damage after he relapsed into addiction. Defendant moves to dismiss Plaintiff's claim because he failed to timely file an administrative claims pursuant to the FTCA (Docket No. 10). For the reasons stated below, Defendant's motion is denied.
*53Background
The following facts are taken from Plaintiff's complaint (Docket No. 1) and assumed to be true at this stage of the litigation.
Beginning in late 2010 or early 2011, Plaintiff sought treatment for amphetamine dependency, with Adderall as his drug of choice. On or about January 24, 2012, Plaintiff was admitted to Emerson Hospital for detox and treatment for withdrawal. On or about February 2, 2014, Plaintiff was transferred to McLean Hospital's Ambulatory Treatment Center at Naukeag to continue his treatment in an inpatient program. Plaintiff remained at McClean until March 5, 2012, when he successfully completed the inpatient program.
In March 2012, Plaintiff became a patient of GGHC. In May 2012, Casie Short, P.A., prescribed Plaintiff Clonidine to ease his withdrawal symptoms. In July 2012, Plaintiff began treatment with Dr. Osborne and continued to see him until March 2014.
By August 2012, Dr. Osborne prescribed Plaintiff amphetamine-based medication. Dr. Osborne had access to Plaintiff's medical records which indicated he was a recovering amphetamine addict. Further, Plaintiff's mother told Dr. Osborne that Plaintiff was a recovering amphetamine addict. Nonetheless, Dr. Osborne prescribed, and Plaintiff accordingly took, several amphetamine-based medications such as Selegiline, Vyvanse, and Adderall. By September 2013, Plaintiff began to show signs of relapse.
Over time, Dr. Osborne increased the dosages of Plaintiff's amphetamine-based medications. By January 2014, Dr. Osborne was prescribing dangerous and potentially lethal amounts of amphetamine-based medications, including 100 mg daily of Adderall alone. By January 2014, Plaintiff had fully relapsed. Consequently, in May 2014, Plaintiff lost his job. Further, he suffered from paranoia, delusions, and sometimes could not sleep for days.
In September and November of 2014, Plaintiff was arrested in Rhode Island for illegally obtaining Adderall. At one of Plaintiff's court appearances, Dr. Osborne falsely informed the prosecutor in Rhode Island Drug Court that Plaintiff was not drug dependent and that he did not struggle with addiction. Consequently, Plaintiff's case was removed from Drug Court.
Plaintiff has been hospitalized or otherwise treated multiple times for his addiction since being prescribed amphetamines by Dr. Osborne and continues to exhibit symptoms of neurotoxicity. Not until October 2015 did Plaintiff overcome his relapse into addiction triggered by Dr. Osborne's treatment.
On August 26, 2016, Plaintiff presented his claim to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act. On February 15, 2017, his claim was denied. On March 1, 2017, Plaintiff requested reconsideration by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which was denied on September 15, 2017. The September 15, 2017 denial letter informed Plaintiff that, pursuant to
Standard of Review
1. 12(b)(1) Motions and the FTCA
Although the United States brings a 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss, the Supreme Court has held that "the FTCA's time bars are nonjurisdictional and subject to equitable tolling." United States v. Kwai Fun Wong , --- U.S. ----,
Therefore, I must decide whether to treat Defendant's motion under the Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss or Rule 56 summary judgment standard. Some courts have converted Rule 12(b)(1) claims into Rule 56 motions for summary judgment when considering timeliness claims under the FTCA. See, e.g., Holloway ,
"[W]here the relevant dates [in an FTCA case] are not evident in the complaint, the court may consult evidence outside the complaint, converting a motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment." Ritchie v. United States ,
2. 12(b)(6) Standard
A defendant may move to dismiss, based solely on the complaint, for the plaintiff's "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a complaint must allege "a plausible entitlement to relief." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly ,
In evaluating a motion to dismiss, the court must accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. Langadinos v. American Airlines, Inc. ,
*55Ashcroft v. Iqbal ,
Discussion
Courts do not have jurisdiction over claims against the federal government, except where the government has expressly waived its immunity. See United States v. Kubrick ,
In order to bring a claim under the FTCA, a plaintiff must "present[ ] in writing to the appropriate Federal agency [his tort claim] within two years after such claim accrues," otherwise that claim is "forever barred."
1. Discovery Rule
Generally, "a tort claim under the FTCA accrues when a plaintiff is injured." Morales-Melecio ,
Whether the discovery rule applies is often a fact-intensive question and therefore are best resolved at the summary judgment stage. See Abdallah v. Bain Capital LLC ,
Here, Plaintiff presented his claim to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on August 26, 2016. Defendant contends that Plaintiff's claim accrued in January 2014, when Plaintiff alleges he had fully relapsed into amphetamine dependency.
Construing the facts pled in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, coupled with the acknowledgement that this is a fact-intensive inquiry best resolved at the summary judgement stage, I find that Plaintiff has plausibly alleged that a person similarly situated would not have been able to appreciate the factual basis of his injury or casually link it to Dr. Osborne's negligence.
2. Equitable Tolling
Plaintiff alternatively contends that, even if Defendant is correct that his claim accrued in January 2014, he is entitled to equitable tolling. See United States v. Kwai Fun Wong , --- U.S. ----,
The First Circuit has held that "mental illness may toll the time to file an administrative claim ... but only if the plaintiff has 'show[n] that the mental disability was so severe that the plaintiff was '[un]able to engage in rational thought and deliberate decision making sufficient to pursue [her] claim alone or through counsel.' " Bartett ,
Like the discovery rule, in the context of a motion to dismiss:
Because the applicability of the equitable tolling doctrine often depends on matters outside of the pleadings, it is not generally amenable to resolution on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion ... In fact, a complaint cannot be dismissed unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts that would establish the timeliness of the claim. For this reason, we have reversed dismissals where the applicability of the equitable tolling doctrine depended upon factual questions not clearly resolved in the pleadings. Similarly, we must reverse if the factual and legal issues are not sufficiently clear to permit us to determine with certainty whether the doctrine could be successfully invoked.
Supermail Cargo, Inc. v. United States ,
Defendant contends that even assuming Plaintiff's condition delayed the pursuit of his claim, reasonable diligence after October 2015 (when Plaintiff overcame his addiction) could have resulted in his filing an administrative claim by April 9, 2016 (two years after his last visit with Dr. Osborne). While the accrual date is disputed, even assuming Defendant is correct, its argument is not necessarily persuasive. Indeed, courts have held that "the statute-of-limitations clock stops running when extraordinary circumstances first arise, but the clock resumes running once the extraordinary circumstances have ended or when the petitioner ceases to exercise reasonable diligence, whichever occurs earlier." Luna v. Kernan ,
Plaintiff alleges that Dr. Osborne's negligence led to a debilitating relapse which caused severe psychological impairments. Even assuming Defendant is correct regarding the accrual date of Plaintiff's claims, it is plausible that Plaintiff's struggle with amphetamines amounted to extraordinary circumstances precluding him from rational thought analogous to a mental illness that the First Circuit has held would entitle him to equitable tolling. Moreover, unlike a debilitating mental illness, Plaintiff's inability to act timely was directly caused by Dr. Osborne's negligence.
*58Thus, Plaintiff may be even more entitled to equitable tolling as it would be patently unfair to allow a defendant to eschew liability by negligently incapacitating a plaintiff and consequently thwarting his claim on procedural grounds.
Therefore, because determining whether equitable tolling is proper is a fact-intensive inquiry dependent on matters outside of the pleadings and because I do not find that there is no set of facts that would establish the timeliness of Plaintiff's claim, Plaintiff has sufficiently pled that he is entitled to equitable tolling at this stage in the litigation.
Conclusion
For the reasons stated above, Defendant's motion to dismiss (Docket No. 10) is denied.
SO ORDERED.
The Court in Kubrick explained that the discovery rule was motivated in particular by medical malpractice claims "since many of the consequences of medical malpractice often do not become apparent for a period longer than that of the statute [of limitations], the injured plaintiff is left without a remedy." Kubrick ,
Defendant argues in the alternative that Docket No. 11-1 demonstrates Plaintiff's claim accrued during his last visit with Dr. Osborne in April of 2014. Because this analysis is pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), however, I will not consider materials outside of the pleadings.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Gordon DUKE v. COMMUNITY HEALTH CONNECTIONS, INC. and Terry Osborne II, D.O.
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published