- Court
- Court of Appeals of Georgia
- Year
- 2025
- Case
- Floyd Healthcare Management, Inc. v. Golden
- Citation
- 374 Ga. App. 641; 913 S.E.2d 765
- Decided
- March 7, 2025
The renewal action was not barred by the five-year statute of repose because the March 14, 2020 Judicial Emergency Order tolled the repose period. The plaintiff also satisfied renewal cost-payment requirements by paying known court costs when filing and paying subsequently determined federal dismissal fees within a reasonable time.
Summary
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed the denial of Floyd Healthcare Management’s motion to dismiss Jami Lynn Golden’s medical-malpractice renewal action. The court held that the claims were not barred by the five-year statute of repose because the March 14, 2020 Judicial Emergency Order tolled the repose period.
The court also held that Golden satisfied the renewal-action cost-payment requirement by paying known court costs when she filed the renewal action and paying later-determined federal dismissal fees within a reasonable time after the district court set the amount.
Issues Decided
Judicial-emergency tolling of the statute of repose
Decision
The court held that Golden’s claims were not barred by the statute of repose. It adopted the Georgia Supreme Court’s intervening ruling in Golden v. Floyd Healthcare Management, which held that the March 14, 2020 Judicial Emergency Order tolled the repose period and that there was no constitutional impediment to that tolling.
Facts
Golden filed her original medical-malpractice case in federal court. The federal district court struck her expert reports and witnesses shortly before the close of discovery. Golden then moved to dismiss without prejudice, and the district court granted dismissal with conditions, including payment of attorney fees and expenses for “wasted work.”
Golden filed her renewal action in state court on October 21, 2021.
Reasoning
The Court of Appeals had previously held the claims barred, but the Georgia Supreme Court reversed that part of the decision. On remand, the Court of Appeals vacated its earlier repose ruling and followed the Supreme Court’s holding that emergency-order tolling preserved the renewal action.
Renewal-action cost payment
Decision
The court held that Golden satisfied the jurisdictional requirement to pay costs from the dismissed action. At minimum, the later federal “wasted work” fee amount was not known when she filed the renewal action, and she paid it within a reasonable time after the district court fixed the amount.
Facts
The federal district court required briefing on the amount of “wasted work” costs. Floyd Healthcare filed a bill of costs for $24,769, and Golden responded. The federal court did not set the amount until March 29, 2022. Golden’s counsel forwarded payment the next day.
Golden had filed the renewal action months earlier, after paying the known court costs due from the federal action but before the district court determined the final amount of the “wasted work” fees.
Reasoning
Georgia’s renewal statute is remedial and is construed liberally. The court explained that renewal cost rules generally concern costs actually due and owing to the court, such as filing fees or jury fees. The court also reasoned that, even assuming the “wasted work” fees counted for purposes of the rule, a plaintiff may satisfy the requirement when the amount was unknown despite a good-faith effort and is paid within a reasonable time after it becomes known.
Because the district court itself had not yet determined the amount when Golden filed the renewal action, and because Golden paid the amount the day after it was set, the cost-payment issue did not require dismissal.
Commentary
The cost-payment holding is the practical part of the opinion. A plaintiff renewing after a federal dismissal should pay all known court costs before filing, document efforts to determine any disputed or conditional fees, and then pay any later-determined amount promptly.
The opinion does not turn federal conditional dismissal fees into a simple trapdoor for renewal. But it also does not make cost timing casual. The record mattered: the amount was genuinely unresolved, the district court later fixed it, and payment followed the next day.
