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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


RONALD PELUDAT, Plaintiff-Appellee, v SURYA SANKARAN, M.D., d/b/a SURYA SANKARAN, M.D., P.C., Defendant-Appellee, and TAWAS ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL, Defendant-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED January 12, 2001

No. 219028 Iosco Circuit Court LC No. 98-000866-NH

Before: Talbot, P.J, and Hood and Gage, JJ. PER CURIAM. Defendant, Tawas St. Joseph Hospital, appeals by leave granted from an order denying its motion for summary disposition and motion to set aside order. We reverse. On February 9, 1998, plaintiff filed a complaint alleging medical malpractice. Specifically, plaintiff alleged that, in August 1995, he suffered from external and internal hemorrhoids. He sought treatment for the condition and was scheduled to have surgery to remove the hemorrhoids on August 31, 1995, at defendant hospital. Defendant Dr. Sankaran performed the surgery. Plaintiff alleged that medical malpractice occurred relative to preoperative procedures, the operation itself, and post-operative procedures. An affidavit of merit was not filed with the medical malpractice complaint. Furthermore, a motion to extend the time for filing an affidavit of merit was not filed contemporaneously with the complaint. Instead, on February 20, 1998, eleven days after filing the complaint, plaintiff filed an ex parte motion to allow an additional twenty-eight days to file an affidavit of merit. Specifically, plaintiff acknowledged that an affidavit of merit was a statutory requirement that had not been fulfilled, but claimed that good cause was present for failing to timely file the affidavit and to extend the time frame for filing, by stating in his motion:

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3. Plaintiff has forwarded the Notice of Intent and all of Plaintiff's pertinent medical records to a board certified general surgeon who will testify as to the standard of care required by Defendants Surya Sankaran, M.D., and Tawas St. Joseph Hospital. 4. An Affidavit is forthcoming, as counsel for Plaintiff has recently spoken to her [sic] expert general surgeon. 5. MCLA

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