Court Opinion

ID: 9627971
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:01:46.643639+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:53.913503
License: Public Domain

SCHROEDER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the Court’s conclusion in part IV.A. that the 180-day notice requirement under the Idaho Tort Claims Act began to run on the date of Mrs. Mitchell’s overdose. As the Court notes, I.C. § 6-906 provides that claims against a political subdivision shall be presented “within one hundred eighty (180) days from the date the claim arose or reasonably should have been discovered, whichever is later.” I.C. § 6-906. Whether intentionally or not, hospital personnel misrepresented the cause of the injury to Mrs. Mitchell and this misrepresentation delayed discovery of the claim against the hospital.
Information concerning the cause of the injuries was within the hospital’s reach, not Mrs. Mitchell’s. The hospital personnel misled her to believe that her claim would be against a private manufacturer, not the hospital. No notice of tort claim would be necessary against the manufacturer. Not until the manufacturer established that there was no equipment malfunction was it known to Mrs. Mitchell that her claim was actually against the hospital for the negligence of one of its nurses.
Mrs. Mitchell, and counsel, were placed in a difficult position. She could file suit against the manufacturer based upon incomplete information and run the risk of an adverse award of attorney fees, perhaps against counsel, for pursuing an action without proper investigation. Alternatively, she could file a notice of tort claim against her trusted health care provider whose personnel told her that it was not the hospital’s fault, potentially resulting in embarrassment to the hospital when Mrs. Mitchell was led to believe by the hospital that it was not at fault. Accusing an institution of misdeeds without an adequate basis is not something people of honor do. But now the hospital gains the benefit of misleading Mrs. Mitchell. Section 6-906 of the Idaho Code provides an easy exit from the dilemma of suing the manufacturer without adequate information or embarrassing the hospital with a claim that Mrs. Mitchell was told would have no basis.
The 180-day period for filing a notice of tort claim should be tolled for the time it took to discover that the claim was against the hospital, not the manufacturer. Whether the steps Mrs. Mitchell took within that time frame could satisfy the notice provisions of the Tort Claims Act should be determined by the district court.