Case Name: Annie CANNON, Appellant, v. MID-SOUTH X-RAY COMPANY and E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company and John Does I-V, Appellees
Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1999-02-23
Citations: 738 So. 2d 274
Docket Number: No. 97-CA-01122 COA
Parties: Annie CANNON, Appellant, v. MID-SOUTH X-RAY COMPANY and E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company and John Does I-V, Appellees.
Judges: BRIDGES, C.J., AND THOMAS, P.J., COLEMAN, IRVING, KING, LEE, AND PAYNE, JJ„ CONCUR.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 738
Pages: 274–279

Head Matter:
Annie CANNON, Appellant, v. MID-SOUTH X-RAY COMPANY and E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company and John Does I-V, Appellees.
No. 97-CA-01122 COA
Court of Appeals of Mississippi.
Feb. 23, 1999.
Rehearing Denied May 18, 1999.
Certiorari Denied Aug. 26, 1999.
Edward Blackmon, Jr., Canton, Attorney for Appellant.
• Dorrance Aultman Rhonda C. Cooper, Jackson, Jennifer J. Selby, Attorneys for Appellees.

Opinion:
DIAZ, J.,
for the Court:
¶ 1. Annie Cannon, the appellant, appeals the decision of the Hinds County Circuit Court granting summary judgment to Mid-South X-Ray Company and E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company, the appellees, in her personal injury action. On appeal, Cannon contends that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment because there was a genuine issue of material fact regarding the date of accrual for her cause of action. We agree. Therefore, we reverse and remand for a trial on the merits.
FACTS
¶2. Cannon began her employment in 1975 with the Mississippi Methodist Rehabilitation Center located in Jackson, Mississippi. As a darkroom technician, she was required to work in small room and use various toxic chemicals manufactured by Du Pont to develop x-ray film. Between 1975 and 1986 Cannon directly handled and mixed the chemicals as part of her job.
¶ 3. Within six months of her employment at MMRC, Cannon began experiencing different health problems including: burning eyes, burning sensations throughout her body, sinus problems, extreme nausea, and severe headaches. During this period, Cannon never suspected that the chemicals she was exposed to at work were associated with her health problems. Furthermore, the doctors who were treating her symptoms did not make a connection between her chemical exposure and her illnesses. In 1983 Cannon began having severe seizures, burning sensations under her skin, and severe headaches. At this point, her doctors began prescribing additional medications to combat these symptoms. As her employment at MMRC continued, Cannon's symptoms progressed and persistently worsened.
¶ 4. By the late 1980's after her symptom severity increased, Cannon sought additional medical assistance. She saw several doctors who did not make definitive diagnoses of her problems. During this period, Cannon states that she did not suspect an association between her numerous health problems and the toxic chemicals she was routinely exposed to at work.
¶ 5. In January of 1992, Cannon's supervisor at MMRC gave her an article entitled, "Darkroom Disease." The article outlined some of the symptoms experienced by people who worked with chemicals in the darkroom of photograph laboratories. After reading the article, Cannon began to suspect that her illnesses were related to her exposure to chemicals at work. Thereafter, in February 1992 Cannon's supervisor received a memorandum requesting that he not inform Cannon of the disease, tell her about the article concerning darkroom disease, or ensure that the safety of her workplace was met and maintained.
¶ 6. In January of 1993, Cannon saw Dr. Robert L. Saulter about her health problems. He referred her to the Ocshner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana where she was examined by several physicians. Cannon related her medical history and information about the chemicals at her place of work. During her treatment at the Ocshner Clinic, she received medical confirmation that her illness was associated with chemicals at her workplace. On February 9, 1993, Dr. Todd W. McCune reported that exposure to chemicals at her workplace was a major cause of her health problems.
¶ 7. On August 8, 1995, Cannon filed suit against Mid-South and Du Pont. After a hearing, the Hinds County Circuit Court granted the appellees' motion for summary judgment on January 16, 1997. Feeling aggrieved, Cannon filed this appeal.
DISCUSSION
¶ 8. Summary judgment is a powerful tool which "should be used wisely and sparingly." Martin v. Simmons, 571 So.2d 254, 258 (Miss.1990). It should only be granted when "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact." M.R.C.P. 56(c). When reviewing a decision to grant summary judgment, this Court will review the case de novo. Crain v. Cleveland Lodge 1532, 641 So.2d 1186, 1188 (Miss.1994). All evidentiary matters are viewed in a light most favorable to the non-movant. Id. (emphasis added); Morgan v. City of Ruleville, 627 So.2d 275, 277 (Miss.1993). In other words, Mid-South and Du Pont must show that there is no issue of fact concerning when Cannon discovered her latent injury. In the case sub judiee, Mid-South and Du Pont have not met this burden.
¶ 9. Mississippi Code Annotated § 15—1— 49(1) (Rev.1995) provides as follows:
(1) All actions for which no other period of limitation is prescribed shall be commenced within three (3) years next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after.
(2) In actions for which no other period of limitation is prescribed and which involve latent injury or disease, the cause of action does not accrue until the plaintiff has discovered, or by reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury.
¶ 10. At issue here is when does a cause of action accrue. "A cause of action accrues only when it comes into existence as an enforceable claim; that is when the right to sue becomes vested." Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. Edwards, 573 So.2d 704, 706 (Miss.1990)(adopting and applying the "discovery rule" in limited circumstances in negligence and products liability cases involving latent injuries). The Mississippi Supreme Court held that the statute of limitations commences upon discovery of an injury and that discovery is an issue of fact to be decided by a jury where there is a genuine dispute. Schiro v. American Tobacco Co., 611 So.2d 962, 964 (Miss.1992).
¶ 11. The court further held in both Schiro and Edwards that the accrual date for a cause of action arose on the date the illnesses' were diagnosed by a doctor. Schiro, 611 So.2d at 965; Edwards, 573 So.2d at 709. Additionally, the court in Schiro recognized that Schiro knew she had sustained some type of injury within six years of the detection of lung disease. Schiro, 611 So.2d at 965. However, since the cancer had not been medically diagnosed, Schiro did not actually know what her injury was; therefore, any suit she brought then would have been premature. Id.
¶ 12. The dissent in this case would prefer to use the statute of limitations applicable to medical malpractice claims instead of the statute of limitations applicable to actions not otherwise specifically provided for under Mississippi Code Annotated Section 15-1-49 to deny Cannon's personal injury claim. The dissent reasons that the judicial interpretation and statutory language of Mississippi Code Annotated Section 15-1-36 would limit Cannon to filing her claim within two years of "the date [of] the alleged act, omission or neglect . [which] with reasonable diligence might have been first known or discovered." This assertion might be true if the instant case was a medical malpractice claim. However, it is not. Cannon filed this lawsuit against Mid South and Du Pont for causing her injuries as a darkroom technician, not against medical doctors for malpractice. The applicable statute of limitations found in Section 15-1-36 would allow this case to proceed and the reversal of summary judgment is therefore appropriate. In fact, the dissent makes the point that this case was not ripe for summary judgment by arguing that a different statute of limitations applies and that Cannon should have known of her injury well before she filed her claim. Under Schiro, the discovery of an injury is an issue of fact to be decided by a jury where there is a genuine dispute such as we have here.
¶ 13. Cannon, like Schiro, contends that there exists a genuine issue of material fact relating to the defense of the statute of limitations and that such fact is within the province of the jury to decide the time a cause of action accrues. Cannon asserts that her cause of action against the appellees accrued on February 9, 1993, when Dr. McCune told her that exposure to chemicals at her workplace was a major cause of her health problems. The appellees counter that under the applicable statute of limitations, Cannon failed to bring her claim within three years after the alleged injury. Mid-South and Du Pont contend that Cannon should be charged with discovery of her injuries from the time she initially sought treatment for her illnesses between 1980 and 1990. In the alternative, the appellees assert that Cannon knew of the connection between her illnesses and toxic workplace in January 1992 when she read the article about darkroom disease. The appellees tried to support their argument that she knew of her injury and its cause by stating that between January and July of 1992 Cannon took a leave of absence, contacted attorneys about the possibility of a workers' compensation claim, and contacted the author of the article on darkroom disease. Therefore, the latest possible date Mid-South and Du Pont are willing to concede that Cannon discovered her illness and its cause is July 22, 1992, when Cannon contacted the author, Marjorie Gordon. Additionally, Cannon received a letter from Gordon plus more information on darkroom disease dated August 13,1992.
¶ 14. It cannot be said, with regal'd to the steps taken by Cannon in 1992 to find out more about her illnesses, that any affirmative diagnosis was given to her by a medical doctor establishing a connection between her workplace and resulting illnesses. Cannon lacks any specialized training in toxicology, pharmacology, or radiology and is by all accounts a darkroom technician who could not reasonably be expected to diagnose a disease on which the scientific community has yet to reach an agreement.
¶ 15. The appellees rely on Kemp v. G.D. Searle & Company, 103 F.3d 405 (5th Cir. 1997) for the proposition that Cannon's illnesses were previously diagnosed and thereby made her claim under the darkroom disease theory time-barred. In Kemp, the court found that the diagnosis of infertility was a complication of an earlier diagnosed problem, namely pelvic inflammatory disease. Id. at 410. However, Kemp is distinguishable from the case at bar because the Kemp court concluded that the statute of limitations began to run when Kemp knew of her injury and its cause. Id. (emphasis added). Although Cannon was aware that she was suffering from numerous illnesses and later thought that her problems might be connected with her employment, no doctor had definitively diagnosed her condition until February 9, 1993.
¶ 16. Mid-South and Du Pont claim that the statute of limitations in this case began to run no later than July 22, 1992, and therefore, Cannon's claim is time-barred. On the other hand, Cannon claims that her injury did not accrue until February 9, 1993, when Dr. McCune diagnosed her problems and the cause. Since a genuine issue of material facts exists surrounding the date of accrual in this cause of action, the grant of summary judgment was improper. It is within the province of the jury to decide the time that Cannon's cause of action accrued since that fact is in dispute. Therefore, we reverse and remand for a trial on the merits.
¶ 17. THE JUDGMENT OF THE HINDS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT IS REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR A TRIAL ON THE MERITS. ALL COSTS OF THIS APPEAL ARE TO BE SPLIT EQUALLY BY THE APPEL-LEES.
BRIDGES, C.J., AND THOMAS, P.J., COLEMAN, IRVING, KING, LEE, AND PAYNE, JJ" CONCUR.
SOUTHWICK, J., DISSENTS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION, JOINED BY McMILLIN, P.J.