Opinion ID: 2458273
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Appellants' Argument

Text: The appellants contend the statutory one-year period did not begin to run until the extent of the injury from the battery became known. In support of this proposition they cite the four cases we now discuss. Urie v. Thompson, 337 U.S. 163, 69 S.Ct. 1018, 93 L.Ed. 1282 (1949), is cited as perhaps being the first case to use the time-of-discovery rule to determine when a cause of action accrues for purposes of applying a statute of limitations. There a worker's cause of action was held to have accrued when the fact of his injury, i.e., the contraction of silicosis, became known to him. In Raymond v. Eli Lilly & Co., 117 N.H. 164, 371 A.2d 170 (1977), the plaintiff alleged that use of an oral contraceptive manufactured by Lilly had caused optical hemorrhages which resulted in her becoming legally blind. She did not learn the cause of the hemorrhages until more than six years (the limitations period) had passed. In an opinion answering a question of New Hampshire law certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Chief Justice Kenison reviewed many products liability cases with respect to statutes of limitations and the time-of-discovery rule. His concise statement was: We believe that the proper formulation of the rule and the one that will cause the least confusion is the one adopted by the majority of the courts: A cause of action will not accrue under the discovery rule until the plaintiff discovers or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered not only that he has been injured but also that his injury may have been caused by the defendant's conduct. In U.S. v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 100 S.Ct. 352, 62 L.Ed.2d 259 (1979), a Federal Tort Claims Act case, the claimant alleged that neomycin had been negligently prescribed as a remedy for his infected leg and had caused him to lose his hearing. The Supreme Court held the cause of action accrued when the claimant learned not just of his injury and its cause, but when he further was given reason to suspect or learned from another doctor that the prescribing doctor had been negligent. The Federal Tort Claims act limitation provision thus may be tolled for a period even longer than Chief Justice Kenison's opinion provided with respect to a New Hampshire statute of limitations. None of these cases deals with the situation with which we are confronted. Here the appellant, Margaret McEntire, knew she had been battered. Her complaint described the attack as willful, intentional and barbarous. She obviously knew by whom she had been struck and that she was injured. Her only alleged lack of knowledge was as to the extent of her injuries. The appellants' final citation is Everhart v. Rich's, Inc., 229 Ga. 798, 194 S.E.2d 425 (1972). In that case the plaintiffs had purchased fiberglass draperies which disintegrated over a long period placing fiberglass particles in their home environment and causing illness. The Georgia Supreme Court held that, where the alleged wrong is breach of a duty to warn of a hazardous product, the cause of action does not accrue until an injury is ascertainable. The opinion points out that in such a case the tort will be regarded as continuing until eliminated, for example, by warning of the hazard. The appellants in the case now before us ask us to hold that the continuing leakage of the breast implant after the alleged battery is analogous to the disintegration of the draperies. We decline to do so. The continuing tort theory in Everhart v. Rich's, Inc., supra , was used to support tolling the statute of limitations until injury, as opposed to its extent, was ascertained. The Georgia court's opinion distinguishes facts similar to those before us: On a tort claim for personal injury the statute of limitation generally begins to run at the time damage caused by a tortious act occurs, at which time the tort is complete. In such cases the true rule in this State was expressly recognized to the effect that in an action for personal injuries the statute of limitation commences at the time the damage or injury is actually sustained. In such torts, where the injury is occasioned by violent external means, the result of the previous violation of a duty, no problem arises in fixing the date and time when the statute begins to run.