Opinion ID: 2567033
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Clarification of Tolling Section 41-5-13 Based on Fraudulent Concealment

Text: {25} Section 41-5-13 requires plaintiffs to file their claims within three years from the date the malpractice occurs. With Section 41-5-13, the Legislature, in order to alleviate the unfair burden upon the medical profession created by a discovery rule, preclude[s] almost all malpractice claims from being brought more than three years after the act of malpractice. Cummings, 1996-NMSC-035, ¶¶ 38, 40. Fraudulent concealment requires a plaintiff to demonstrate that the defendant physician knew of the alleged negligent act and concealed the negligent act from the patient or had material information pertinent to discovery of the negligent act which the defendant failed to disclose. Fraudulent concealment also requires that the plaintiff demonstrate that he or she did not know, and could not have discovered through the exercise of reasonable diligence, his or her cause of action during the statutory period. If a plaintiff demonstrates these requirements, then the equitable principle of fraudulent concealment tolls Section 41-5-13. We conclude that Kern provides authority for a day-for-day tolling of the statute of repose: If tolled by fraudulent concealment, the statute commences to run again when the patient discovers, or through the exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the malpractice. Kern, 102 N.M. at 456, 697 P.2d at 139. {26} We also reaffirm, however, that the statute of repose is not tolled if the patient knew, or through the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, of his or her claim within the statutory period. We cannot exercise the equitable principle of fraudulent concealment and deny the defendant's reliance upon Section 41-5-13 where the plaintiff knew of the cause of action within the statutory period. In such circumstances, the defendant's actions did not prevent the plaintiff from pursuing the claim. The limitations period . . . encourages the patient, once the injury has been discovered, to diligently pursue his or her claim. Cummings, 1996-NMSC-035, ¶ 41. We believe this expresses the balance required in equity between not allowing a defendant to benefit from fraudulent concealment that prevents a plaintiff from filing a claim while continuing to require the plaintiff to exercise ordinary diligence in pursuit of his or her cause of action. The tolling of the statute based on equitable estoppel is meant to provide the plaintiff with a fair opportunity to pursue his or her cause of action set against the context of the specific decision by the legislature to insulate qualified health care providers from the much greater liability exposure that would flow from a discovery-based accrual date, the most notable benefit of qualification. Cummings, 1996-NMSC-035, ¶ 29 (quotation marks and quoted authority omitted). If the plaintiff is aware of his or her claim, or should have been aware through the exercise of reasonable diligence, within the statutory period, the equitable remedy is not applicable. To apply equitable tolling under such circumstances would frustrate the Legislature's intent by effectively replacing the Legislature's statute of repose with a discovery-based statute of limitations. {27} When the plaintiff discovers the cause of action within three years of the date of malpractice, thereby precluding equitable relief for fraudulent concealment under Kern, the plaintiff will necessarily, as a matter of due process, have a reasonable time within which to file a claim, either under the three year limitations period itself or under the La Farge/Cummings due process analysis. Thus, the Kern fraudulent concealment doctrine applies only to claims discovered after the statutory period has expired. Apart and independent from fraudulent concealment, if a plaintiff discovers the potential claim during the statutory period but has an unreasonably short period of time within which to file, a plaintiff may argue to the district court that Section 41-5-13 is unconstitutional as applied under the La Farge/Cummings due process analysis. We conclude that this flexibility provides district courts with some level of discretion to relax Section 41-5-13's strict three-year occurrence rule in unusual cases involving exceptional circumstances as a matter of fairness while upholding the legislative protection for physicians and assuring New Mexicans access to health care.