Opinion ID: 2334491
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statutory Tolling of the Statute of Repose

Text: By statute, the absolute temporal bar imposed by the medical malpractice statute of repose may be tolled only in exceedingly limited circumstances. The statute of repose itself expressly provides for tolling on the basis of fraudulent concealment, Tenn.Code Ann. § 29-26-116(a)(3), but it says nothing about tolling on the basis of mental incompetency. The absence of an express tolling provision for mental incompetency when tolling is expressly provided for on another ground indicates legislative intent not to provide for tolling on the basis of mental incompetency. See Penley, 31 S.W.3d at 185-86. Moreover, this Court held in Penley that the general legal disability statute provided in Tennessee Code Annotated section 28-1-106 (1980) does not serve to toll statutes of repose on the basis of mental incompetency. 31 S.W.3d at 186-89. The legal disability statute states: If the person entitled to commence an action is, at the time the cause of action accrued, either under the age of eighteen (18) years, or of unsound mind, such person, or such person's representatives and privies, as the case may be, may commence the action, after the removal of such disability, within the time of limitation for the particular cause of action, unless it exceeds three (3) years, and in that case within three (3) years from the removal of such disability. Tenn.Code Ann. § 28-1-106 (1980). In Penley , we explained that the references to the accrual and the bringing of a cause of action indicate that this section is only applicable to extend the running of a statute of limitations, and we will not interpret the legal disability statute to give it effect beyond the fair import of its terms. 31 S.W.3d at 186. Thus, we clearly refused to extend the legal disability statute to allow for tolling of the statute of repose on the basis of mental incompetency. Id. at 188. Relying on Penley , the Court of Appeals in this case held correctly that no ... statutory exception exists for [tolling] the statute of repose on the basis of mental incompetency.