Opinion ID: 1534917
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Constitutionality of the Medical Malpractice Act's Limitation Period.

Text: The appellants' final point on appeal concerns the constitutionality of the Medical Malpractice Act's statute of limitations, Ark.Code Ann. § 16-114-203. They argue that section 16-114-203 is a statute of repose which is violative of the Arkansas Constitution's guarantees of equal protection of the laws and their rights to a jury trial and redress of wrongs. The appellants also contend that the statute's exception to the general two-year statute of limitations based on foreign-object claims violates the Arkansas Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. The crux of the appellants' equal protection argument is that this court should apply a heightened level of scrutiny in reviewing the statute. While it is true that the statute may be more accurately described as a statute of repose, we decline to apply strict scrutiny in examining the statute's constitutionality. Instead, the applicable standard of review is rational basis. For example, in Carter v. Hartenstein, 248 Ark. 1172, 455 S.W.2d 918 (1970), this court upheld the application of a statute of repose for actions against architects and designers. The statute at issue there required that personal injury and wrongful-death actions against a designer, planner, or constructor of a building or improvement be brought within four years from the date of substantial completion of the project regardless of the date that injury arose as a result of the defect. The appellant in Carter challenged the statute, asserting it violated due process, equal protection, as well as the Article 2, Section 13, redress of wrongs guarantee. The crux of appellant's argument was that the statute unconstitutionally gave protection to those enumerated in the statute while failing to give the same protection to others such as materialmen and owners, whom the appellant claimed belonged in the same class as those exempted. This court framed the issue as whether it is fair and reasonable and an appropriate action by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, or whether it impinges and frustrates basic rights guaranteed constitutionally. Id. In answering that question, this court held that the statute was valid, reasonable, constitutional and not enacted for arbitrary or capricious reasons. Id; see also Chapman v. Alexander, 307 Ark. 87, 817 S.W.2d 425 (1991) (upholding limitations period in legal malpractice actions). The Carter court noted that a vital distinction based on control of the premises existed between owners or suppliers and those engaged in the professions and occupations of design and building. This distinction was not arbitrary or unreasonable and was a legitimate exercise of legislative function. The constitutional guarantee of equal protection does not prohibit legislation affording different treatment for persons in different classifications so long as there is a rational basis for the different classifications and they have some reasonable relation to the objectives of the legislation. Holland v. Willis, 293 Ark. 518, 739 S.W.2d 529 (1987). Of course, any statute of limitations will eventually operate to bar a remedy, and the time within which a claim should be asserted is a matter of public policy, the determination of which lies almost exclusively in the legislative domain, and the decision of the General Assembly in that regard will not be interfered with by the courts in the absence of palpable error in the exercise of the legislative judgment. Owen v. Wilson, 260 Ark. 21, 537 S.W.2d 543 (1976). Simply put, it is the General Assembly's prerogative to set a time in which a claim must be brought. Such a determination is a matter of public policy. We are unable to say that the limitations period found in section 16-114-203 lacks a rational basis, or deprives a claimant of a constitutional right to redress of wrongs or a jury trial. Appellants next contend that within section 16-114-203 itself exists an unconstitutional distinction between foreign-object medical malpractice claimants and typical medical malpractice claimants. See Ark. Code Ann. § 16-114-203(b) (where the action is based upon the discovery of a foreign object in the body of the injured person which is not discovered and could not reasonably have been discovered within such two-year period, the action may be commenced within one (1) year from the date of discovery or the date the foreign object reasonably should have been discovered, whichever is earlier.) Appellants point out that in Treat v. Kreutzer, 290 Ark. 532, 720 S.W.2d 716 (1986), we alluded to the very respectable authority from other jurisdictions holding such a distinction to be unconstitutional as a denial of equal protection of the laws. As examples of such authority, the appellants direct us to other courts that have struck down a foreign-object distinction. Typical is Austin v. Litvak, 682 P.2d 41 (Colo.1984), where the Colorado Supreme Court held that the distinction between foreign-object claimants and normal claimants was an arbitrary classification. The Austin court could find no rational basis for distinguishing between the two classes of medical malpractice claimants. While the court recognized a legitimate state interest in foreclosing the prosecution of stale or frivolous claims, the classification which resulted in the denial of the discovery rule to patients whose conditions were negligently misdiagnosed did not further this interest, and therefore lacked a rational relationship to that goal. Id. By way of contrast, other courts have upheld a similar foreign-object plaintiff distinction. In Ross v. Kansas City Gen. Hosp. & Med. Ctr., 608 S.W.2d 397 (Mo.1980) (en banc), the court noted that the legislature may have recognized the unfairness in barring a claim where a foreign object had been left in the claimant's body before the object had been discovered. Moreover, the legislature may have deemed the time of discovery in foreign-object cases appropriate rather than the date of injury because there is less likely to be as great a problem with stale evidence when a foreign object is left in the body than in the other types of malpractice cases. Id. See also Allrid v. Emory University, 249 Ga. 35, 285 S.E.2d 521 (1982) (noting that in foreign-object cases the danger of belated, false or frivolous claims is eliminated.). Here we are merely asked to determine whether there exists any rational basis which demonstrates the possibility of a deliberate nexus with state objectives, so that the legislation is not the product of utterly arbitrary and capricious government purpose and void of any hint of deliberate and lawful purpose. See Hamilton v. Hamilton, 317 Ark. 572, 879 S.W.2d 416 (1994). In light of staleness considerations that are not as likely present in foreign-object cases, we conclude that a rational basis exists for the Medical Malpractice's Act exception to its limitations period in such cases. The trial court did not err in declining to find the limitations period unconstitutional as violative of equal protection. Nos. 96-1350, 96-1355, 96-1406, Affirmed. Nos. 96-1405, 96-1407, 96-1408, 96-1409, 96-1414, 96-1415, 96-1365, 96-1354, 96-1470, Affirmed in part, Reversed and Remanded in part. BOB LESLIE, JIM PENDER, WARREN DUPWE and LeANNE DANIEL, Special Justices, join in this opinion. NEWBERN, GLAZE, CORBIN and BROWN, JJ., not participating.