Court Opinion

ID: 9530155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:57:48.245562+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:00.878972
License: Public Domain

COMPTON, Justice,
dissenting in part.
A person is alerted to the fact that he or she has a potential cause of action when he or she discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, the existence of all elements *911essential to his or her cause of action. It is settled law that when a reasonable person is so alerted, the person is put on inquiry notice. This means that the person is “deemed to have notice of all facts which reasonable inquiry would disclose.” Mine Safety Appliances Co. v. Stiles, 756 P.2d 288, 292 (Alaska 1988) (quoting Vigil v. Spokane County, 42 Wash.App. 796, 714 P.2d 692, 695 (1986)).
It is not clear just what “inquiry” the court is referring to throughout its opinion. The discovery rule this court adopted in Greater Area Inc. v. Bookman, 657 P.2d 828 (Alaska 1982), contemplates a sequence of activities by a plaintiff. First, the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should discover, the existence of all elements essential to his or her cause of action. Presumably this discovery can result from any number of unrelated or interrelated activities. The plaintiff may actively solicit information, a third person may volunteer information to the plaintiff, a pain may lead to a new medical examination, which may itself uncover information. Any of these may lead to discovery of the elements essential to a cause of action. The examples are endless. Whatever the activity or source of information, the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should discover, the elements essential to a cause of action. At that point the statute of limitations begins to run.
As the last sentence of the following quote demonstrates, the court contemplates a far different course of conduct:
Under the discovery rule, the cause of action accrues when the plaintiff has information sufficient to alert a reasonable person to the fact that he has a potential cause of action. At that point, he should begin an inquiry to protect his or her rights and he is “deemed to have notice of all facts which reasonable inquiry would disclose.” If, however, a reasonable inquiry would not be immediately productive, the cause of action nonetheless accrues if, within the statutory period, the essential elements may reasonably be discovered. Palmer v. Borg-Warner, 818 P.2d 632, 638 (Alaska 1990).
Op. at 908 (other citations omitted).
It is clear from this statement that the court is identifying at least two separate accrual dates. Neither of these is the discovery rule accrual date we adopted in Bookman, and reaffirmed as recently as in the republished Palmer v. Borg-Warner, 818 P.2d 632, 634 n. 3 (Alaska 1990). See also State v. Welch, 805 P.2d 979, 981-82 (Alaska 1991). One separately identifiable accrual date is “when the plaintiff has information sufficient to alert a reasonable person to the fact that he has a potential cause of action.” Op. at 908. This phrase expresses a meaning different than that expressed in “the existence of all elements essential to a cause of action,” Mine Safety, 756 P.2d at 291, or “the existence of all the elements of [the] cause of action,” Bookman, 657 P.2d at 829, two phrases which I consider to mean the same thing. It is also an earlier accrual date, since the plaintiff does not have to be aware of as much information to be alerted to the fact that he or she has a “potential” cause of action as is the case when information extends to the “essential elements” of a cause of action. In this case the court concludes that Pedersen was alerted and put on inquiry notice1 when he “knew that he became paralyzed following a serious automobile accident which resulted in major surgery.” Op. at 908.
The second accrual date is somewhat more difficult to understand, because of the circuity of the court’s reasoning. If “reasonable inquiry would not be immediately productive,” the cause of action accrues, i.e. the statute of limitations begins to run, “if, within the statutory period, the essential elements may be reasonably discovered.” (Emphasis added). Op. at 908. Yet it is the accrual of the cause of action that puts the plaintiff on inquiry notice in the first place. The court is saying that *912after the cause of action has accrued, and during the running of the statute, the cause of action may again accrue, i.e. the statute may start running again.
I do not agree that the discovery rule contemplates these separately identifiable accrual dates. The rule applied by the court is not the discovery rule adopted in Bookman. Indeed, it is in part a rule we abandoned in Bookman. It is a harsh rule, because in Palmer v. Borg-Warner, 818 P.2d 632, 637, this court held that “upon notification of injury or death, the claimant or estate has an affirmative duty to investigate all potential causes of action before the statute of limitations expires.” (Emphasis in original). If this is indeed the law, Pedersen was under a duty to investigate all potential causes of action before the statute expired. Applying the court’s Borg-Wamer rule, Pedersen should lose, just as Palmer lost. Inexplicably, however, Pedersen does not lose. What is apparent is that a potential cause of action is to be presumed from nothing more than an accident and an injury.2
I also do not agree that once a plaintiff is put on inquiry notice, the statute of limitations is somehow tolled as long as the plaintiff is making reasonable, but unproductive, efforts to establish his or her cause of action. A reasonable inquiry should disclose facts which tend to establish a sufficient basis to support filing a cause of action. If an inquiry does not disclose such facts, the inquiry may not have been reasonable. However, it also may be that a reasonable inquiry does not disclose such facts because “there is another legally sufficient reason to toll the statute or estop [the defendant] from relying on the statute.” Gudenau & Co., Inc. v. Sweeney Insurance, Inc., 736 P.2d 763, 768 (Alaska 1987). For instance, conduct of the defendant may hinder inquiry, i.e. engaging in fraud, concealment, and like conduct; the nature of the incident itself may render inquiry fruitless, i.e. failing to find wreckage of an aircraft in desolate, rugged terrain, despite the best efforts of military and civilian air and ground searchers. Yet if a reasonable inquiry would have disclosed facts which tend to establish a sufficient basis to support filing a cause of action, the statute of limitations will commence running when the person is put on inquiry notice. What constitutes a “reasonable inquiry” should be measured by an objective standard, and not simply by whether the inquiry made by a particular person is reasonable.
This court concludes that Pedersen was on inquiry notice. If that is correct, he is deemed to have notice of all facts which reasonable inquiry would disclose, not just the facts which his particular inquiry discloses.
In my view this question, if indeed it is the “main question in this case,” is whether reasonable inquiry would have disclosed facts which tend to establish a sufficient basis to support filing a cause of action within the time permitted by the statute of limitations. The question is not whether Pedersen’s inquiry was reasonable. The standard must be an objective one to achieve uniform application of the statute *913of limitations, a result I believe best serves affected interests.
More importantly, based on the record before us I do not agree that Pedersen was on inquiry notice. Inquiry notice presupposes that a person is alerted to the fact that he or she has a potential cause of action. Op. at 908. As this rule is stated in Mine Safety Appliances Co. v. Stiles, 756 P.2d at 291, the statute of limitations begins to run when the person “discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, the existence of all elements essential to his cause of action.” This is but a restatement of the discovery rule this court adopted in Greater Area Inc. v. Bookman, 657 P.2d 828 (Alaska 1982). If a person does not discover all the elements of his or her cause of action, and reasonably could not have discovered all such elements, the person is not alerted to the fact that he or she may have a potential cause of action. The statute of limitations does not begin to run until the person “discovers, or reasonably should discover” all elements. Id. at 829.
Discovery by a reasonable person of all elements of a cause of action is not the same as discovery through reasonable inquiry of facts tending to establish a sufficient basis to support filing a cause of action.
The “main” question in this case, in my view, is when a reasonable person should have discovered the existence of all the elements of his or her cause of action against the medical care providers sued, thereby triggering “inquiry notice.” In my view that is by no means clear. Pedersen was looking for someone to whom he could attach liability for his injuries, including the driver of the automobile with whom he collided, the manufacturer of his own automobile, and even the ambulance crew that transported him to the hospital following the collision. He sued and settled with the manufacturer of his automobile. The settlement was for approximately $600,000. That was not a nuisance value settlement. It cannot be said that Pedersen was not alerted to the fact that he had a potential cause of action against the automobile manufacturer or that he failed to uncover facts concerning that cause of action through apparently reasonable inquiry. Obviously his focus was not on his medical care providers. Would a reasonable person have acted differently?
The record before us discloses that Ped-ersen was seriously injured in a traumatic automobile collision. The impact was so severe that his aorta was ruptured, necessitating use of special survival clothing to minimize internal hemorrhaging pending surgery. Loss of blood into the body cavity was depriving the cardiovascular system of oxygen and fluid necessary to sustain bodily functions. Immediate surgery was required to “repair” the aorta (sew it back together), and thus save Pedersen’s life. Although his legs were responsive to stimulus upon admission to the hospital and prior to surgery, they were not afterward. Pedersen is partially paralyzed.
Pedersen and his wife both inquired of his physicians about the cause of the paralysis. They were given information that was less than complete, and that arguably could be viewed as misleading. Medical records indicate that the flow of blood was interrupted for a period longer than one of the physicians said was acceptable before complications might arise. The records also state that the paralysis was “secondary” to the “repair,” meaning that it was caused by the operation. However, neither Pedersen’s treating physicians, consulting physicians or hospital ever stated directly to Pedersen or his wife that the operation was the cause of the paralysis, medical negligence aside.
Even if a person understood that the surgery caused the paralysis, would a reasonable person’s attention be directed to his medical care providers to the extent that reasonableness would require him to investigate the surgery? Would a reasonable person be more likely to look to those most apparently culpable, such as the other automobile driver, the automobile manufacturer, or possibly the ambulance crew? Would it be reasonable for a person to proceed on the theory that culpability lay in the actors involved in the accident, which itself was the reason the person had to *914have the life saving surgery? Was it reasonable for the person’s attorney to continue to pursue those most apparently culpable, even after having reviewed the hospital records? Do the incomplete and arguably misleading answers given by the person’s physician affect the reasonableness of the inquiry?
I conclude that reasonable minds could differ on how a reasonable person would respond in the circumstances described. A jury question is presented whether Peder-sen, as a reasonable person, should have discovered all the elements of his cause of action against his medical care providers more than two years before he sued them.
Assuming the court’s conclusion that Pedersen was put on inquiry notice upon learning that his legs were paralyzed, a discovery made immediately following the surgery that resulted from the accident, under the formulation of the rule applied by this court in Borg-Wamer, Pedersen should have been under a duty to investigate all possible causes of the injury. This would obviously include the conduct of his medical care providers. Only one of his physicians allegedly failed to make a full disclosure to Pedersen and his wife. It is difficult to conclude that the physician’s alleged failure to fully disclose matters to them would have had any effect on a reasonable inquiry, since the medical records themselves, always available to Pedersen, disclosed what the physician had not. An inquiry based on those records would have led to the surgery as the cause of the paralysis. This discovery would or should have focused inquiry on the physician. Reliance on his alleged failure to disclose would have become unreasonable at a point earlier than two years before suit was filed. As to the other medical care providers, no legally sufficient cause has been shown to postpone accrual of the statute beyond the inquiry notice date the court establishes. Thus if we accept the court’s analytical framework, Pedersen should lose.

. The inquiry notice to which Chief Justice Ra-binowitz refers in his concurring opinion contemplates "a reasonable inquiry into the cause of Pedersen’s paralysis”. (Footnote omitted). This patently is not the same as “an affirmative duty to investigate all potential causes of action” required by Palmer v. Borg-Warner.

. Until today’s application of the rule stated in Palmer v. Borg-Wamer to a medical malpractice claim, Borg-Wamer could be rationalized as an air crash exception to the discovery rule. This could be derived from Borg-Wamer, at 636 n. 6 ("air crashes do not normally occur absent negligence, even in inclement weather ... the estate reasonably should have known from the date of being informed of the crash that potential claims existed against the pilot, the carrier, or the manufacturer.”). However, since Peder-sen’s duty to inquire was triggered by his knowledge that “he became paralyzed following a serious automobile accident which resulted in major surgery,” Borg-Wamer is not simply an air crash exception to the discovery rule. Ironically, Borg-Wamer’s comment about the cause of air crashes, taken from Widmyer v. Southeast Skyways, Inc., 584 P.2d 1, 14 (Alaska 1978), was published just two months after an article appeared attributing the deaths of most air crash victims in Alaska to .the poor judgment of pilots. The article contained a quote from the National Transportation Safety Board’s chief accident investigator in Alaska, who stated:
The common denominators [in light plane crashes in Alaska] are lack of experience, lack of training and, for the commercial operators, lack of supervision.
Anchorage Daily News, September 11, 1990, at 1, col. 6.