Webb v. Morning View Delaware, Inc.

Summary

The Ohio Court of Appeals for the Fifth District reversed and remanded summary judgment entered for nursing-home defendants in a survivorship and wrongful-death action. The court held that, following the 2019 amendment to R.C. 2305.113(B)(2), the 180-day medical-claim extension is effective when notice is sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, rather than when the notice is received. The court also sustained the appellant’s challenge to summary judgment on the wrongful-death claim.

Holdings

1. Under the 2019 version of R.C. 2305.113(B)(2), notice of a medical claim is given, and the 180-day extension becomes effective, when the claimant sends the notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, to one of the statutorily specified addresses; the extension does not begin only upon the defendant's actual receipt.
2. The trial court erred in granting summary judgment on the wrongful-death claim based on the one-year limitation period in R.C. 2305.113(A) rather than the two-year period in R.C. 2125.02(F)(1).

Questions Presented

1. Whether the 180-day extension under R.C. 2305.113(B) begins when the claimant sends the notice-of-claim letter by the statutory method or only when the defendant actually receives it.
2. Whether a wrongful-death claim involving alleged medical negligence is governed by the one-year limitation period for medical claims under R.C. 2305.113(A) rather than the two-year limitation period in R.C. 2125.02(F)(1).

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded