The Kansas Supreme Court today upheld the Wyandotte County District Court’s dismissal of a petition alleging medical malpractice and negligence claims in a case where the plaintiff’s husband died.
Several doctors and other medical personnel were among those named as defendants in the lawsuit.
According to court documents, the district court clerk file-stamped the petition, indicating it was received one day after the statute of limitations period had expired.
The lawyer for the plaintiff argued that the petition was timely because she filed the petition one day earlier, but it was rejected by the clerk.
The attorney argued the statute of limitations should not have barred her filing because the petition was electronically submitted before the statute of limitations ran, and the attorney promptly responded when the clerk returned it because of an electronic filing issue.
The supreme court, however, stated that there was no evidence in the record to support the assertion that the attorney timely submitted the same petition as the one eventually file stamped by the clerk. The attorney failed to meet the evidentiary standard required when responding to a motion to dismiss with facts outside the pleadings, according to the court.
The supreme court stated the district court had appropriately granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss.