Opinion ID: 778240
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Accrual of the FTCA Cause of Action.

Text: 5 When a claim accrues under the FTCA is a question of federal law. See Brazzell v. United States, 788 F.2d 1352, 1355 (8th Cir.1986). The general rule is that an FTCA claim accrues at the time of injury. But in medical malpractice cases, the claim accrues when the plaintiff actually knew, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, the cause and existence of his injury. Wehrman v. United States, 830 F.2d 1480, 1483 (8th Cir.1987) (quotation omitted). Knowing the cause and existence of an injury is not the same as knowing that a legal right has been violated. Once a plaintiff knows or should know that he has been injured and who has inflicted the injury, [t]here are others who can tell him if he has been wronged, and he need only ask. United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 122, 100 S.Ct. 352, 62 L.Ed.2d 259 (1979). 6 In this case, plaintiffs obviously knew the fact of an injury — the baby's death — no later than February 7, 1996, the date of the stillborn delivery. The issue is when they knew or reasonably should have known that PHC's prenatal care caused that injury. Motley began her prenatal care at PHC on July 31, 1995 and made her last prenatal visit to PHC on January 31, 1996. On February 7, Motley was admitted to Deaconess Hospital for labor and delivery; the hospital's records report an approximate gestational age of 42 4/7 weeks. When told of the baby's death, Motley, her family, and the baby's father expressed numerous concerns over why [Motley] was not delivered sooner. Motley testified at her deposition that she believed on February 7 that the medical personnel at People's Health Clinic could have done something different that would have prevented this tragedy. The baby's father contacted an attorney a week or two after February 7, but he was instructed at his deposition not to answer a question concerning the purpose for that contact. The medical staff at Deaconess offered no explanation for the cause of the baby's intrauterine demise. Plaintiffs offered no evidence that they undertook any prompt investigation into the cause. 7 Once aware of the injury, plaintiffs had a duty to exercise due diligence in investigating its cause. See Osborn v. United States, 918 F.2d 724, 732 (8th Cir.1990) (plaintiff has a duty to inquire into the unknown cause of a known injury) (quotation omitted); Brazzell, 788 F.2d at 1356 (plaintiff ought to be charged with ... knowledge [of the cause] as soon as she could have discovered ... the cause by asking a doctor). Deaconess Hospital could not have caused the injury because the baby died before Motley was admitted. PHC was the sole prenatal care provider. While plaintiffs did not know that substandard prenatal care caused the baby's death, as opposed to an unknown and unsuspected natural cause, they in fact suspected substandard care, and they had only to ask an independent doctor to review PHC's records to confirm that suspicion, as was finally done in 1998. This is not a case where Deaconess staff attributed the baby's death to natural causes, as in Thompson v. United States, 642 F.Supp. 762, 763 (N.D.Ill.1986). This is not a case where a doctor advised plaintiffs that PHC's prenatal care was not the cause of the injury, as in Brazzell, 788 F.2d at 1356. Nor is this a case where plaintiffs inquired and doctors repeatedly advised they could find no cause for the injury, as in Osborn, 918 F.2d at 732. Rather, this is a case like Kubrick, where the plaintiff, armed with the facts about the harm done to him, can protect himself by seeking advice in the medical and legal community, 444 U.S. at 123, 100 S.Ct. 352. In these circumstances, we agree with the district court that plaintiffs' malpractice claim against PHC accrued on February 7, 1996. 8