Case Name: Blanche GOODLET, individually, and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Terri Lynn Christy (Flateau), Appellant, v. Dr. Eric STECKLER, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1991-08-07
Citations: 586 So. 2d 74
Docket Number: No. 90-03483
Parties: Blanche GOODLET, individually, and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Terri Lynn Christy (Flateau), Appellant, v. Dr. Eric STECKLER, Appellee.
Judges: DANAHY, A.C.J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 586
Pages: 74–78

Head Matter:
Blanche GOODLET, individually, and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Terri Lynn Christy (Flateau), Appellant, v. Dr. Eric STECKLER, Appellee.
No. 90-03483.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.
Aug. 7, 1991.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 11, 1991.
Joseph N. Perlman, Largo, for appellant.
Kenneth C. Deacon, Jr., and Russell Ellis Artille of Harris, Barrett, Mann & Dew, St. Petersburg, for appellee.

Opinion:
ALTENBERND, Judge.
Blanche Goodlet, the mother of Terri Lynn Christy and personal representative of her daughter's estate, appeals a final summary judgment concerning the estate's medical malpractice action against Dr. Steckler. The trial court granted the judgment on the ground that the action had been filed outside the applicable statute of limitations. We affirm, because Dr. Steckler had provided the personal representative with at least the minimum factual information necessary to commence the running of the statute of limitations more than two years before the personal representative served the presuit notice. University of Miami v. Bogorff, 583 So.2d 1000 (Fla.1991); Barron v. Shapiro, 565 So.2d 1319 (Fla.1990).
Terri Lynn Christy died on March 26, 1987, at the age of twenty-eight. According to the plaintiff's complaint, on March 11,1987, Ms. Christy visited the emergency room at Largo Medical Center Hospital with complaints of pain in her right leg. She was hospitalized on March 12, and she was treated by Dr. Steckler for a deep venous thrombosis until her release on March 25. Ms. Christy returned to the hospital on March 26 and died of an apparent cardiac arrest.
The medical malpractice action against Dr. Steckler was filed on September 21, 1989. Although the plaintiff had apparently sent a presuit notice to the hospital on March 7, 1989, no notice was sent to Dr. Steckler until August 10, 1989. See § 768. 57, Fla.Stat. (1987); cf. § 766.106, Fla.Stat. (1989). In this case, the notice to the hospital was not notice to Dr. Steckler. See Ingersoll v. Hoffman, 561 So.2d 324 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990). We conclude that the notice to Dr. Steckler was untimely because the plaintiff had discovered the "incident" or, with due diligence, should have discovered that incident prior to August 10, 1987. § 95.11(4)(b), Fla.Stat. (1987).
The evidence at summary judgment was very limited, but undisputed. Blanche Goodlet's affidavit confirmed that Dr. Steckler called her on April 3, 1987, and told her that he was her daughter's treating physician and that her daughter had died. In Bogorff, the supreme court reaffirmed Barron and held that the medical malpractice statute of limitations "commences when the plaintiff should have known of either (1) the injury or (2) the negligent act." Bogorff, 583 So.2d at 1002. When Ms. Goodlet was informed of her daughter's death, we conclude that she was informed of the type of "injury" which the supreme court intends as one of the two factors commencing the statute of limitations.
In Bogorff, the court also stated: "Although they did not know if medical negligence caused that condition, they knew that Dr. Koch had treated Adam and knew of his injury. This was sufficient for their cause of action to accrue, thereby commencing the statutory limitation period against Dr. Koch and the University of Miami." Bogorff, 583 So.2d at 1002. Due to this language, we are uncertain whether the supreme court intends to require that a plaintiff know the identity of the treating physician before the statutory period commences. We note that the supreme court's decision in Bogorff does not discuss Judge Lehan's thorough concurring opinion in Jackson v. Georgopolous, 552 So.2d 215 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989). Whether the identity of the treating physician is a critical factor to trigger the commencement of this period is not an issue that is essential to this decision because it is undisputed that Dr. Steckler informed Ms. Goodlet of his identity as the treating physician.
Finally, this is not a case in which the plaintiff argues that the statute of limitations should be extended for fraud, concealment, or intentional misrepresentation. There is no allegation that the doctor concealed any pertinent information.
Because Bogorff is pending on rehearing as we write this decision, we note that we are uncertain whether we have followed the rule intended by that decision. From this record, we do not know when Ms. Goodlet learned that her daughter had been hospitalized or when she knew or should have known about the treatment her daughter received in the hospital. If "incident" involves knowledge of some explanation of this young woman's death, Ms. Goodlet apparently did not receive that information in the doctor's telephone call, and this record does not establish when she first learned or should have learned the story of her daughter's death.
We would suggest that the difficulty in interpreting section 95.11(4)(b), Florida Statutes (1987), stems from the problem of relating the concept of "incident" to the elements of a cause of action for medical negligence. "Incident" is not a legal term which is defined in an extensive body of tort law. The courts, however, must connect the legislative concept of "incident" to negligence law. The plaintiff is not "discovering" the facts necessary to write a good news story; the plaintiff is discovering some of the facts relating to a cause of action in negligence. Clearly, the plaintiff need not know the entire story in detail before the statute of limitations commences. The critical question is what minimum facts are essential to give the plaintiff notice that a timely investigation should begin in order to discover any additional facts needed to support a medical negligence action.
From this perspective, it is fair to suggest that a medical negligence cause of action involves at least seven. important factual considerations: 1) the identity of the plaintiff; 2) the existence of a relationship between the plaintiff and a health care provider that is sufficient to create a legal duty under a theory of medical negligence; 3) the identity of the health care provider who owes the duty; 4) the standard of care owing under the duty; 5) the facts establishing a breach of the standard of care; 6) proximate causation; and 7) injury. In Bo-gorff, the supreme court seems to trigger the statute of limitations by knowledge of facts which establish either the factor described in 7 or the factors described in 4 and 5. We are uncertain what knowledge, if any, the supreme court intends to require concerning factors 1 through 3. In this case, Ms. Goodlet had information concerning factors 1 through 3 as a result of Dr. Steckler's telephone call. Accordingly, we have no need to determine whether these factors are critical to the commencement of the statute of limitations and, if so, what information concerning those factors is essential. A holding as to these difficult issues can await a case in which they are dispositive.
Affirmed.
DANAHY, A.C.J., concurs.
LEHAN, J., concurs specially.
. As a result of our holding, we do not determine whether the petition filed in circuit court on March 7, 1989, pursuant to section 768.-495(2), Florida Statutes (1987), describing Largo Medical Center and "Dr. John Doe," could extend the statute of limitations beyond August 10, 1989, for an action against Dr. Steckler.