Court Opinion

ID: 9536143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:55:38.646493+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:27.997603
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(dissenting) — The amended complaint in this action, the allegations of which must be taken as verities for purposes of the motion to dismiss, stated:
Dorothy Bixler had been a regular patient of defendant doctor since 1957. On January 23, 1975, she complained to him about a lump in her right breast that ultimately proved cancerous. During the period from January 28, 1975 until August 4, 1975, defendant doctor negligently provided a continuous and substantially uninterrupted course of treatment to Dorothy Bixler regarding her cancer condition by prescribing to her a continuing course of conservative treatment consisting only of self observation by her of her breast on behalf of defendant doctor and directing her to continue to consult with him as she felt necessary. She consulted with him pursuant to this prescription on April 29, 1975, and was directed to continue such treatment which she did until she terminated it on August 4, 1975, when she saw a second physician. The treatment was improper and ineffective by defendant doctor and a proximate cause of the worsening of her cancer.
During the entire and uninterrupted course of the above prescribed treatment of Dorothy Bixler until August 4, 1975, the defendant doctor negligently failed to perform reasonably necessary diagnostic procedures to inform himself as to the facts and circumstances indicating the presence or absence of a cancer in her with a resulting failure to provide reasonable treatment to her.
The foregoing were proximate causes of the worsening of the Plaintiff's cancer causing her damage through failure to provide reasonable treatment.
Thus, the allegations of the complaint were that the plaintiff suffered injury as a result of the defendant's continued course of negligence in failing to utilize reasonable diagnostic procedures. Obviously, the alleged negligence of *152the doctor did not take the form of a single act or omission, but was a continuing one. The statute does not expressly provide for negligence which consists of failure to act, rather than affirmative action. Inasmuch as medical negligence is as likely to be the one as the other, it cannot be assumed that the legislature intended to make no provision for bringing an action where the negligence consists of non-action. The majority recognizes this and is willing to give the words "wrongful act", as contained in RCW 4.16.350 at the time this suit was brought, a meaning broad enough to include omissions as well as acts. However, it is unwilling to recognize that the defendant's wrongful "act" may in fact be a series of acts or omissions.
This court took account of such situations in Samuelson v. Freeman, 75 Wn.2d 894, 454 P.2d 406 (1969), relied upon by the Court of Appeals in reaching its decision. We said there, at page 900:
[I]f malpractice is claimed during a continuous and substantially uninterrupted course of treatment for a particular illness or condition, the statute does not begin to run until the treatment for that particular illness or condition has been terminated.
(Italics mine.) See Annot., When Statute of Limitations Commences To Run Against Malpractice Action Against Physician, Surgeon, Dentist, or Similar Practitioner, 80 A.L.R.2d 368 (1961).
The question answered there was: Does the statute begin to run from the time the treatment began, or when it ended? Because a patient is not ordinarily put on notice of the negligent conduct of the doctor upon whose skill, judgment and advice he relies while the relationship continues, it is just that the period should not begin to run until the treatment is terminated. See Hundley v. St. Francis Hosp., 161 Cal. App. 2d 800, 327 P.2d 131 (1958); Myers v. Stevenson,. 125 Cal. App. 2d 399, 270 P.2d 885 (1954).
It was for this reason that we decided in Samuelson v. Freeman, supra, that the period of limitation should begin to run at the conclusion of the treatment.
*153The statute offers no answer to the question but leaves the meaning of the words "wrongful act" to be determined by the court. I agree with the majority that the legislature was presumably aware of this court's decision in the Samuelson case, but I do not agree with its conclusion regarding the legislative response. In order to reject the holding of that case, it would have had to use language manifesting an intent that where there is continuing negligence on the part of the defendant, the statute runs from the time the negligence began, rather than the time when it ended. In fact, the majority has concluded that the legislature intended the relevant time to be the time of the last wrongful act. Our disagreement, then, is essentially concerned with the date on which the last act occurs, where a continuous course of treatment is involved and the negligence consists of acts of omission, rather than commission. The majority opinion necessarily concludes that it occurs on the last day on which the patient visits the doctor. I do not subscribe to that evaluation of the relationship between doctor and patient. It places on the patient the burden of immediately seeking the advice of another doctor when her doctor has prescribed a passive course of treatment. That is not realistic.
In Gray v. Davidson, 15 Wn.2d 257, 130 P.2d 341 (1942), the plaintiff alleged abandonment by his doctor. The court stated that when a doctor undertakes to treat a patient, the doctor has the duty to
devote his best attention to the case until either medical attention is no longer needed, he is discharged by the patient, or he has given the patient reasonable notice of his intention to cease to treat the patient, so that another physician may be obtained.
Gray, at 266-67.
I accept this as a fair statement of the doctor's duty. That being the case, every day that the defendant failed to contact the plaintiff and advise her to come in for tests was a day of continuing acts of negligent omission. His duty continued until she manifested an intent to rely on other *154medical help by seeking the advice of another doctor. Thus, as I view the situation, the day of the defendant's last wrongful act was August 3,1975, a date within the period of limitation.
The result reached by the majority in this case is no less a construction of an ambiguous statute than is my dissent. The question is, Which of these constructions accords more nearly with reality and with the probable legislative intent? I cannot believe that the legislature intended to require a patient to perceive his cause of action while still relying on his doctor's skill and judgment. There is nothing in the act to reflect such an intent. The words "wrongful act" give no clue to the legislative intent. I would presume that the legislature, not having rejected it, intended to let the rule of Samuelson v. Freeman, supra, stand.
In my judgment, the Court of Appeals was correct upon this point. I think it was mistáken, however, in holding that the question of when the doctor-patient relationship was terminated is a question still to be determined. The defendant has accepted the allegations of the complaint as true for the purposes of this motion. They show that the relationship was not terminated by any act of either the doctor or the patient before August 4, 1975. Consequently, the statute of limitations had not run.
I would affirm the reversal of the tried court's decision and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with these views.
Wright, Horowitz, and Williams, JJ., concur with Rosellini, J.
Reconsideration denied September 26,1980.