Court Opinion

ID: 9453345
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:10:36.887635+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:37.141335
License: Public Domain

FREEDMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
A plaintiff is being barred from recovery against his lawyers of the value of his serious personal injury case which he claims was lost by their negligent representation, simply because we now decide almost eight years later that at the time he retained them the statute of limitations against the tortfeasor had already expired. The lawyers, however, undertook to represent him and collected a substantial fee after assuring him that he had “a most excellent case.”
It seems to me that even if the statute had already run when the lawyers accepted plaintiff’s case, there was much which the record indicates they failed to do and which a jury might find would have been done by competent counsel. The biopsy disclosed plaintiff’s cancerous condition which necessitated the amputation of his finger on February 9, 1959. It was on May 9, 1960, following earlier correspondence, that defendants undertook to represent him. The representation, therefore, began at a time when it might have been urged that the New Jersey two-year statute of limitations1 had not yet expired. Adequate representation of plaintiff would have made clear to plaintiff’s lawyers the need for a prompt pressing of the claim against the manufacturer of the x-ray equipment, especially in view of the uncertainty of the law relating to the statute of limitations in cases such as this and the strong current of change already reported throughout the country in malpractice cases where continuing and accumulating harm breaks out long afterward in overt manifestations.2 They could have sought to effect a settlement of the claim against the manufacturer by pointing to this uncertainty in the law and might also have urged the practical consideration of the desirability of a settlement by a manufacturer of medical equipment instead of litigation which would advertise to the medical profession its negligence in the manufacture of the equipment which would be made known to other physicians who had also used it. Indeed, since the statute of limitations is only a permissive defense 3 they might have urged, if they were driven . to bring suit, that it would be disastrous to the manufacturer’s reputation to seek shelter in the bar of the statute of limitations and by this avoid meeting on the merits a charge of negligence in the manufacture of its x-ray equipment. Instead defendants held no discussions with the manufacturer for at least a year after they were retained on May 9, 1960, and suit was not brought until August 7, 1961. Thus, they did not even approach the manufacturer nor was suit instituted until after they had allowed more than two years to run subsequent to the biopsy and amputation on February 9, 1959, thereby removing whatever doubt they might otherwise *985have urged as to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
In the suit that was ultimately brought, the manufacturer raised the statute of limitations and thereby succeeded in having plaintiff’s action against it dismissed regardless of the merits of his claim. RePass v. Keleket X-Ray Corp., 212 F.Supp. 406 (D.N.J. 1962). In dismissing the action against the manufacturer the court merely held that the statute of limitations had begun to run at the latest on February 9, 1959, when the cancer was discovered. It is impossible, therefore, to say without making a factual decision now, what effect the delay may have had and what results adequate representation of plaintiff might have achieved by prompt negotiations with the manufacturer either in settlement to avoid litigation or in persuading it against pleading the bar of the statute of limitations.
It seems to me that plaintiff is entitled to submit to a jury all the circumstances which surrounded the acceptance by defendants of his case and the manner in which they conducted it thereafter. From these surrounding circumstances a jury would be entitled to decide the question of fact whether the lawyers who undertook to represent plaintiff were negligent in carrying out their obligation and whether such negligence proximately resulted in any damage to plaintiff beyond the fees and expenses which he paid them.
I believe that a factfinder might determine from the circumstances already revealed in the disclosures revolving about summary judgment that defendants negligently caused injury to plaintiff far beyond the expenses and counsel fees which he uselessly incurred. The amount of plaintiff’s damages would be a question of fact to be determined in the light of the difficulties inherent in his claim and what competent counsel might have been able to achieve in representing him. Plaintiff therefore should not be sent away without relief.4
I therefore dissent from the affirmance of the partial summary judgment in favor of defendants.

. N.J.S.A. 2A :14-2.

. See Daniels v. Beryllium Corp., 227 F.Supp. 591 (E.D.Pa.1964) and cases discussed therein; Fernandi v. Strully, 35 N.J. 434, 173 A.2d 277 (1961); Estep & Van Dyke, Radiation Injuries; Statute of Limitations’ Inadequacies in Tort Cases, 62 Mich.L.Rev. 753, 757-69 (1964).

. Rutherford Nat. Bank v. McKenzie, 120 N.J.L. 594, 1 A.2d 12 (1938); Paruch v. Rasiewicz, 124 N.J.L. 356, 12 A.2d 141 (1940).

. The complaint does not specifically allege items of negligence beyond those relating to the delay in instituting the action against the manufacturer, but the liberal provisions for amendment under Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are sufficient to permit amendment if the full development of the facts should be objected to by defendants on the ground that they fall outside the pleading.