Court of Appeals Affirms Motion to Dismiss Granted to OMW Client by Trial Court.
December 30, 2016
Marian Drenth and Kathleen Erickson successfully defended the Plaintiff’s Appeal of a Trial Court’s Order granting OMW’s motion to dismiss a claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff claimed that OMW’s client, a healthcare provider, was negligent in the provision of occupational therapy services which caused Plaintiff to fall during the course of therapy. The Lake Superior Court granted a motion to dismiss filed by Marian Drenth and Kathleen Erickson asserting that the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction due to the Plaintiff’s failure to first file a proposed complaint and present the claim to a medical review panel as required by Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act. The Plaintiff appealed the trial court’s order arguing that it erred in concluding that his complaint did not fall with the scope of the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act, which requires all plaintiffs to file a proposed complaint with the Indiana Department of Insurance and present the claim to a medical review panel before filing a complaint in court. The Court of Appeals affirmed the Lake Superior Court’s Order finding lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the Plaintiff’s claim falls within the scope of the Medical Malpractice Act.