Opinion ID: 2228331
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Martin v. Richey

Text: Having determined as a matter of law that Harris breached a duty to Raymond by the failure to warn her of the dangers associated with Vitek implants, we must now determine if summary judgment was nonetheless appropriate because the claim was barred by the statute of limitations. According to defendant, the two-year time period begins to run from the date of the alleged act, omission, or neglect, Ind.Code § 34-18-7-1(b), and that can be no later than July 25, 1988, when defendant asserts he last saw plaintiff for TMJ-related symptoms, or on July 12, 1990, the last time plaintiff saw defendant for any reason. Under defendant's theory, then, the statute of limitations ran at the latest on July 12, 1992, and since she did not file her complaint until August 16, 1993, her complaint was untimely. We conclude that the trial court properly denied defendant's motion for summary judgment because, according to the principles announced in Martin v. Richey, 711 N.E.2d 1273 (Ind.1999), an application of the statute of limitations on the facts of this case would be unconstitutional. In Martin, we held that the two-year occurrence-based statute of limitations may not constitutionally be applied to preclude the filing of a claim before a plaintiff either knows of the malpractice and resulting injury, or discovers facts, which in the exercise of reasonable diligence, should lead to the discovery of the malpractice and the resulting injury. See id. at 1279. We found that Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution, the Privileges and Immunities Clause, requires that the statute of limitations be uniformly applicable to all medical malpractice victims, and cannot operate to preclude a plaintiff from filing a claim simply because she has a disease which has a long latency period. See id. at 1281-82. We stated that plaintiff cannot be foreclosed from bringing her malpractice suit when, unlike many other medical malpractice plaintiffs, she could not reasonably be expected to discover the asserted malpractice and resulting injury within the two-year period given the nature of the asserted malpractice and of her medical condition. Id. at 1282. We further held that to do so would also bar her access to the courts as guaranteed by Article X, Section 12 of the Indiana Constitution. See id. at 1284-85. We stated that [i]f Section 12 has any meaning at all, it must preclude the application of a two-year medical malpractice statute of limitations when a plaintiff has no meaningful opportunity to file an otherwise valid tort claim within the specified statutory time period because, given the nature of the asserted malpractice and the resulting injury or medical condition, plaintiff is unable to discover that she has a cause of action. Id. at 1284. Analogizing Martin to the facts of this case, there is no indication that Raymond knew that there was anything wrong with her jaw implants before 1993. It was in 1993 that she consulted a doctor for bleeding from her ear, and in 1993 when a piece of Teflon used in the Vitek implant was removed from her head. It was in 1993 that Raymond discovered that the Vitek implant had shattered, and in 1993 that Raymond discovered that the FDA had issued a safety alert regarding the Vitek implants. Raymond filed her malpractice claim against Harris on August 6, 1993, amending her complaint on January 25, 1994. As we stated in Van Dusen v. Stotts, 712 N.E.2d 491 (1999), when the medical malpractice statute of limitations cannot constitutionally be applied to bar a claim, the plaintiff has two years after the discovery of the malpractice or the discovery of those facts which, in the exercise of ordinary diligence, should lead to the discovery of the malpractice within which to bring a claim. See id. at 496-97. We find that plaintiff filed her complaint within the two-year statute of limitations.