The Indiana Medical Malpractice Act (“MMA”) generally requires a medical-review panel to first issue an opinion on a claimant’s proposed complaint before litigation in a trial court. But while the complaint is pending before the review panel, a claimant may file an action in court for a preliminary determination of certain limited threshold issues. An issue recently discussed and decided by the Indiana Supreme Court involved whether class certification by the trial court is a proper preliminary determination under the MMA.
Background Facts
In late 2019, the defendants sent letters to over a thousand of their patients, including the plaintiff, informing them that they may have been exposed to infectious diseases due to a technician’s failure to fully sterilize certain surgical instruments. The plaintiff filed a class-action complaint against the defendants in both the trial court and with the Indiana Department of Insurance (“DOI”), asserting claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and medical malpractice. The plaintiff then sought class certification for similarly situated patients and their spouses. The trial court, by joint motion from the parties, consolidated the plaintiff’s action with a separate class-action claim filed by another patient, who likewise requested class certification.
The Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund (“Fund”) intervened and moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that, because the plaintiffs’ claims sounded in ordinary negligence, the MMA does not apply. The plaintiffs filed statements in support of the Fund’s motion while the defendants cross-moved for partial summary judgment by arguing that the MMA does apply. The trial court first ruled that the MMA applies to the plaintiffs’ claims, thus resolving the competing motions for summary judgment in the defendants’ favor. The trial court then denied the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, concluding that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to rule on those motions while a proposed complaint was pending before a medical-review panel.
The Indiana Supreme Court held in its January 9, 2025 Opinion: “we conclude that the MMA covers all claims for “malpractice” by a “patient” against a “health care provider” (as those terms are defined in the Act) and that nothing in the Complaint Statute limits this scope of coverage. Our conclusion follows from the plain language of the Complaint Statute, and it aligns with decades of precedent, the Act’s legislative history, and its overarching purpose. What’s more, our reading of the Statute ensures compliance with the MMA’s statute of limitations by patients, like those here, that may suffer from a latent bodily injury following an act of malpractice.”
With regard to the class certification issue, the Indiana Supreme Court stated: “the plain language of the MMA allows for a preliminary determination of “an affirmative defense or issue of law or fact that may be preliminarily determined under the Indiana Rules of Procedure,” including Rules other than Trial Rule 12(D). I.C. § 34-18-11-1(a)(1). The Act only prohibits a trial court from issuing a preliminary determination on an “affirmative defense or issue of law or fact” reserved for the panel’s expert opinion—i.e., whether the defendant “failed to comply with the appropriate standard of care” and whether the conduct factored into the “resultant damages.” I.C. §§ 34-18-10-22(b)(1), (2), (4); I.C. § 34-18-11-1(b). In other words, “an issue that does not require expert opinion is not reserved to the medical review panel” and may be subject to preliminary determination by the trial court.”
Source Gierek v. Anonymous 1, Supreme Court Case No. 23S-CT-277.
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