Opinion ID: 1110876
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prescription of the Carters' Claims

Text: An action for medical malpractice sounds in negligence. La.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 40:1299.41(A)(8). The plea of prescription must be specifically pleaded and may not be supplied by the court. La.Code Civ. Proc. Ann. art. 927(B). Ordinarily, the exceptor bears the burden of proof at the trial of the peremptory exception. Campo v. Correa , 01-2707, p. 7 (La.6/21/02), 828 So.2d 502, 508. However, if prescription is evident on the face of the pleadings, the burden shifts to the plaintiff to show the action has not prescribed. Campo, 01-2707 at p. 7, 828 So.2d at 508; Williams v. Sewerage & Water Bd. of New Orleans, 611 So.2d 1383, 1386 (La.1993). If evidence is introduced at the hearing on the peremptory exception of prescription, the district court's findings of fact are reviewed under the manifest error-clearly wrong standard of review. Stobart v. State, Through DOTD, 617 So.2d 880, 882 (La.1993). If the findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, an appellate court may not reverse even though convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently. Id. at 882-83.