Molly Pumphrey, as the Executor of the Estate of Rebecca Lynn Myers, and on behalf of Jennifer Latham and Individually, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. PA PA NR CCP (2026)

In April 2022, the plaintiffs sued the defendants, alleging medical malpractice caused the death of Rebecca Myers in October 2020. They filed three certificates of merit signed by experts to satisfy the requirements of Iowa Code section 147.140 (2022), but none of the certificates of merit said they were signed “under penalty of perjury” or included a jurat proving they were signed under oath. Two years later, the defendants moved for summary judgment after the Iowa Supreme Court held in Miller v. Catholic Health Initiatives-Iowa, Corp., 7 N.W.3d 367, 370 (Iowa 2024), that signed but unsworn certificates of merit do not substantially comply with section 147.140. Realizing that their lawsuit would fail under Miller, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed it without prejudice and refiled it three months later under the savings statute. See Iowa Code § 614.10 (2024) (allowing a plaintiff whose action fails for any cause except negligence in prosecution to continue it by refiling within six months). The defendants’ pre-answer motion to dismiss argued that the second lawsuit was untimely because the savings statute did not apply. The district court agreed that the savings statute did not apply because the plaintiffs were negligent in obtaining certificates of merit that conformed with section 147.140. Because the action was untimely, the district court dismissed it. The plaintiffs appealed.

After this court heard the parties in oral argument, the supreme court directly addressed the issue on appeal in Task v. Ahmed, ___ N.W.3d ___, ___, 2026 WL 1500872, at *6 (Iowa 2026).  ¹ It held that Iowa Code section 614.10 “saves” medical malpractice actions that were pending when Miller was decided and later dismissed to remedy defects in the certificates of merit. Task, ___ N.W.3d at ___, 2026 WL 1500872, at *6. Because Task is dispositive of the issue on appeal, we reverse the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ second action and remand for further proceedings.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

FOOTNOTES

1.   On June 3, 2026, the appellants moved to reverse citing Task. See Iowa R. App. P. 6.1006(3) (“Any party may file a motion with the appropriate appellate court to summarily reverse the order or judgment on appeal on the grounds the result is controlled by an indistinguishable recently published decision of an appellate court ․”).

Opinion by Chicchelly, P.J.