Opinion ID: 457725
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prescription of the Wrongful Death Action

Text: 35 The plaintiffs also assert that the district court erred in entering a summary judgment against them on their wrongful death claim. The district court held that the plaintiffs' cause of action had prescribed. Mrs. Ayo and her children argue that the doctrine of contra non valentem should be applied so that the one year prescriptive period would not have commenced to run until February 1983. 3 36 Under the doctrine of contra non valentem, prescription will not run against a person who is unable to bring an action or who for some reason is unable to act. Dagenhart v. Robertson Truck Lines, Inc., 230 So.2d 916, 918 (La.Ct.App.1970). The Louisiana courts have outlined four situations where the doctrine may be applied: (1) where there was some legal cause which prevented the courts from acting on plaintiff's claim; (2) where there was some condition coupled with the contract or connected with the proceedings which prevented the creditor from acting; (3) where the debtor has done some act to prevent the creditor from availing himself of his claim or where the defendant has knowingly concealed information from the plaintiff or has through his own conduct misled or lulled the plaintiff into inaction; and (4) where the cause of action is not known or reasonably knowable by the plaintiff, although his ignorance is not induced by the defendant. Corsey v. State Department of Corrections, 375 So.2d 1319 (La.1979); Nathan v. Carter, 372 So.2d 560 (La.1979). The plaintiffs rely on the fourth category as the basis for the argument that prescription has not run against them on their wrongful death action. 37 Louisiana law does not require a plaintiff to have actual notice of the cause of action; constructive notice is sufficient. 38 Whatever is notice enough to excite attention and put the owner on his guard and call for inquiry is tantamount to knowledge or notice of every thing to which inquiry may lead and such information or knowledge as ought to reasonably put the owner on inquiry is sufficient to start the running of prescription. 39 Cartwright v. Chrysler Corporation, 255 La. 597, 232 So.2d 285, 287 (1970) (footnote omitted). When an action appears to have prescribed on the face of the petition, the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing facts which would interrupt or suspend prescription. Yarbrough v. Louisiana Cement Company, 370 So.2d 602 (La.Ct.App.), writ denied, 373 So.2d 531 (La.1979); Marcel v. Hospital Corp. of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, 322 So.2d 302 (La.Ct.App.1975). 40 We find that the district court was correct in concluding that, under Louisiana law, the plaintiffs had not raised a factual issue as to whether the cause of action was reasonably knowable by Mrs. Ayo. See Henderson v. Todd Shipyards, 462 So.2d 242 (La.Ct.App.1984), writ denied, 462 So.2d 1266 (La.1985). In Henderson v. Todd Shipyards the identical issue was raised. The widow of an asbestos worker who died of lung cancer filed a wrongful death action over ten years after her husband's death. The plaintiff relied upon the doctrine of contra non valentem. However, she made no showing that she had inquired into the cause of her husband's death but instead had simply rested on the assumption that his death had been caused by cigarette smoking. The Louisiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the plaintiff's wrongful death claim because she had not presented sufficient evidence to meet her burden of proof. 41 The summary judgment evidence in the instant case shows that Mrs. Ayo knew her husband was an asbestos worker and that Dr. Baltz mentioned to her that exposure to asbestos could be harmful. At no point did Dr. Baltz tell Mrs. Ayo that he had ruled out asbestos as a possible cause of her husband's cancer or that cigarette smoking was the cause of the cancer. The summary judgment evidence further shows that Mrs. Ayo took no steps to determine whether her husband's workplace could have played any role in causing his cancer although Dr. Baltz had indicated to her that her husband's employment as an asbestos worker could have been a factor in the problems from which he suffered. Thus, under the clear holding of Henderson v. Todd Shipyards, Mr. Ayo's death was sufficient to put plaintiffs on notice of their wrongful death cause of action. 4 42 We find that plaintiffs also failed to meet their burden of showing that they could not have reasonably known of the wrongful death cause of action; therefore, the district court was correct in granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants. 43 AFFIRMED.