Title: Grabert v. Lightfoot

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

571 So. 2d 293 (1990)
Jesse K. GRABERT
v.
Dr. Robert LIGHTFOOT.
89-633.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
November 16, 1990.
Jesse J. Grabert, pro se.
W. Boyd Reeves and Scott G. Brown of Armbrecht, Jackson, DeMouy, Crowe, Holmes & Reeves, Mobile, for appellee.
MADDOX, Justice.
Jesse K. Grabert was diagnosed by his personal physician as having a hernia in the left groin area and was referred to Dr. Robert Lightfoot for surgery. On May 1, 1987, Dr. Lightfoot operated on Grabert but failed to locate the hernia. On June 8, 1987, after Grabert continued to have symptoms, Dr. Lightfoot informed Grabert that he did indeed have a hernia and offered to perform another operation at no charge. Grabert declined and had Dr. Rudolph Bourgeois perform the operation. During that operation on June 26, 1987, Dr. Bourgeois located the hernia. This operation left Grabert impotent; it also left him unable to perform the type of work he had previously done. Grabert filed suit against Dr. Lightfoot on May 12, 1989; Dr. Lightfoot moved for summary judgment, alleging that the two-year statute of limitations in Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-482 had expired prior to the filing of the lawsuit. The trial court granted Dr. Lightfoot's motion. Grabert appealed from the summary judgment.
*294 The two issues are: (1) when did Grabert's cause of action accrue, on May 1, 1987, when Dr. Lightfoot is alleged to have negligently performed the operation, or on June 26, 1987, when Grabert was further damaged during the second operation, and (2) if the statutory period of limitations had run, then is Dr. Lightfoot estopped from raising that defense?
As this Court stated recently in Colburn v. Wilson, 570 So. 2d 652, 654 (Ala.1990):
Grabert contends that the statutory limitations period did not begin to run until the date of the second operation on June 26, 1987. However, it is clear that any negligence that may have been committed by Dr. Lightfoot occurred on May 1, 1987, when the first operation was performed. Further, it is clear that Grabert was damaged at the time of the first operation on May 1, 1987; he had a hernia and Dr. Lightfoot failed to find or to remedy that condition. As this Court stated in Garrett v. Raytheon Co., 368 So. 2d 516, 518-19 (Ala.1979):
In Street v. City of Anniston, 381 So. 2d 26, 31 (Ala.1980), this Court said:
Certainly, Grabert was entitled to maintain an action against Dr. Lightfoot immediately after the May 1, 1987, operation, despite the fact that the extent of Grabert's injuries allegedly caused by Dr. Lightfoot's failure to find or to remedy the hernia may not have been fully known then.
Having determined that the statute of limitations period had run prior to Grabert's filing suit, we now turn to the issue of whether Dr. Lightfoot was estopped from raising the statute of limitations as a defense. Grabert contends that Dr. Lightfoot's offer to perform a second operation at no charge and Dr. Lightfoot's engaging in settlement negotiations with Grabert implied that Dr. Lightfoot would not raise the statute of limitations as a defense. We have stated, "As a general matter, the type of conduct which is sufficient to give rise to an estoppel against pleading the statute of limitations must amount to an affirmative inducement to the claimant to delay bringing action." Seybold v. Magnolia Land Co., 376 So. 2d 1083, 1085 (Ala.1979). A review of the record shows no "affirmative inducement" on Dr. Lightfoot's part to delay bringing this action; therefore, Dr. Lightfoot was entitled to raise the statute of limitations as a defense.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and ALMON, SHORES, ADAMS, HOUSTON and STEAGALL, JJ., concur.