Opinion ID: 853572
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Continuing Wrong

Text: Boggs also alleges that a question of material fact remains regarding the application of the doctrine of continuing wrong. The doctrine of continuing wrong is applicable where an entire course of conduct combines to produce an injury. See Cyrus v. Nero, 546 N.E.2d 328, 331 (Ind.Ct.App.1989). The doctrine of continuing wrong is not an equitable doctrine; rather, it defines when an act, omission, or neglect took place. Havens v. Ritchey, 582 N.E.2d 792, 795 (Ind.1991). When this doctrine attaches, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the wrongful act ceases, and at that point the plaintiff may bring the claim within the normal statutory period. See Cyrus, 546 N.E.2d at 331. Boggs relies on Ferrell v. Geisler, 505 N.E.2d 137, 140 (Ind.Ct.App.1987), in which the Court of Appeals concluded that a question of fact remained for the jury as to whether the patient's physicians' repeated failure to diagnose her breast cancer constituted a continuing wrong. In Ferrell, the plaintiff visited the defendants more than ten times over a span of two years, first concerned about lumps in her breasts, and then lumps under her arm. See id. at 138. Tri-State cites Cyrus for the proposition that a single incident cannot form the basis of a claim under the doctrine of continuing wrong. In Cyrus, the plaintiff became pregnant after a failed sterilization. See 546 N.E.2d at 331. Boggs alleges that the application of this doctrine places a material fact in issue because, Tri-State interpreted, compared, and possessed both the July 1991 and the July 1992 mammograms. Because Tri-State's actions consisted solely of interpreting mammograms ordered and taken by Oswald's office at times selected by Oswald, this fact supports no continuing physician-patient relationship between Carolyn and Tri-State. Cf. Babcock v. Lafayette Home Hosp., 587 N.E.2d 1320, 1323 (Ind.Ct.App.1992) (leaving a surgical sponge in a patient and misreading a chest x-ray are isolated events and do not together constitute a continuing wrong); Cyrus, 546 N.E.2d at 331. The trial court correctly concluded that the doctrine of continuing wrong was inapplicable to Boggs.