Melinda Williams v. Kenneth J. Hartman, M.D. and Davenport Surgical Group, P.C.

── Melinda Williams v. Kenneth J. Hartman, M.D. and Davenport Surgical Group, P.C. ── Court: Supreme Court of Iowa Date: May 29, 2026 Category: General In the Iowa Supreme Court No. 25–0752 Submitted March 24, 2026—Filed May 29, 2026 Melinda Williams, Appellant, vs. Kenneth J. Hartman, and Davenport Surgical Group, P.C., Appellees. Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Jeffrey C. McDaniel, judge. A plaintiff appeals the dismissal of her medical malpractice lawsuit as filed beyond the statute of limitations after the district court held that the savings statute, Iowa Code § 614.10, did not apply. Reversed and Remanded. Per curiam. John F. Fatino and Nicholas J. Gral of Whitfield & Eddy, P.L.C., Des Moines, for appellant. Jennifer E. Rinden, Vincent S. Geis, and Eric P. Martin of Shuttleworth and Ingersoll, P.L.C., Cedar Rapids, for appellees.  2 Per Curiam. In this case, we are confronted again with whether Iowa’s savings statute, which treats a second lawsuit as a continuation of an earlier one, applies when a plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit voluntarily dismisses her original action after serving defective certificates of merit under Iowa Code § 147.140 (2021). The district court held that the savings statute did not apply and granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, dismissing the plaintiff’s second lawsuit as filed beyond the statute of limitations. The plaintiff appeals. I. In May 2019, Melinda Williams consulted Kenneth J. Hartman, M.D., about abdominal discomfort. During another appointment the following month, Hartman diagnosed Williams with diverticulosis of the colon and recommended surgery. On July 5, Hartman performed surgery on Williams in which he dissected and removed a portion of Williams’s rectum before connecting the lower and middle portions of the rectum. After the operation, Williams suffered from chronic abdominal pain and difficulty passing stool. She was referred to specialists at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics who performed a second surgery creating a temporary opening in the small intestine to keep stool from entering parts of the gastrointestinal tract. The surgeries caused Williams to lose a substantial portion of her rectum, and she now suffers from ongoing abnormal bowel habits and related problems. On June 24, 2021, Williams filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Hartman and his employer, Davenport Surgical Group, P.C. (for simplicity, we’ll refer to them together as “Hartman”). The same day, she filed an “affidavit of certificate of merit” under Iowa Code § 147.140. Hartman filed an answer to the  3 lawsuit denying liability. The parties then engaged in discovery, including expert witness discovery, for the next several years. On May 24, 2024, we issued an opinion in Miller v. Catholic Health Initiatives-Iowa, Corp., 7 N.W.3d 367 (Iowa 2024), holding in a case of first impression that certificate of merit affidavits must be either a sworn oath or signed under penalty of perjury to satisfy § 147.140. Id. at 375. On June 3—about two weeks before the date set for trial—Hartman filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the certificates of merit were noncompliant under Miller. Rather than resist the motion, on June 5, Williams voluntarily dismissed her claims without prejudice. On August 9, Williams filed a new petition against the same defendants alleging identical causes of action. The petition invoked Iowa Code § 614.10, the “savings statute,” arguing that the second action should be deemed a continuation of the first. Hartman answered the petition and then moved for summary judgment, asserting that the savings statute did not a