ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - A judicial order handed down during the early days of the COVID pandemic suspended all deadlines in civil lawsuits including the statute of repose, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled, reviving a medical malpractice suit by a woman who claims a hospital misdiagnosed sepsis that cost her parts of her fingers and toes.
Defendant Floyd Emergency Care Center argued the five-year statute of repose was inviolate. But the Georgia Supreme Court disagreed in a July 2 decision by Justice Carla Wong McMillian. The Judicial Emergency Act of 2004 gives “an authorized judicial official” the power to suspend any deadline, the court ruled.
Jami Lynn Golden went to the Floyd Emergency Care Center in July 2016 complaining of abdominal pain and nausea. She developed sepsis and ultimately lost part of her fingers and toes. Golden sued Floyd in June 2018. While her case was pending, then-Chief Harold Justice Melton of the Georgia Supreme Court issued a March 14, 2020 order suspending “any deadlines or other time schedule or filing requirements” in civil and criminal cases due to the COVID pandemic.
In March and April of 2020, the Supreme Court issued further orders suspending all deadlines until the March 14 declaration expired.
In June 2021, a federal court struck Golden’s expert witnesses and she dismissed her case. In October 2021 she filed a renewal action in state court. Floyd moved to dismiss, arguing the five-year statute of repose for medical malpractice suits had expired in July 2021. The trial judge disagreed, finding the statute of repose period didn’t expire until Oct. 31, 2021.
The Court of Appeals reversed, finding the March 14 order didn’t toll the statute of repose because such statutes are “absolute” and “cannot be tolled.” The Georgia Supreme Court reversed again, ruling the Judicial Emergency Act of 2004 gives “an authorized judicial official” the power to toll the statute of repose.
“It is clear and unambiguous that statutes of repose fall within the meaning of `deadlines’” under Georgia law, the court ruled. “Floyd Medical offers no case, and we know of none, holding that a law must mention a statute of repose to toll it or to authorize its tolling.”