Lipsey v. Michael Reese Hospital

• Decision Date: 29 June 1970
• Docket Number: No. 41987,41987
• Citation: 262 N.E.2d 450,46 Ill.2d 32
• Parties: Elise LIPSEY, Appellant, v. MICHAEL REESE HOSPITAL et al., Appellees.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 450

262 N.E.2d 450

46 Ill.2d 32

Elise LIPSEY, Appellant, v. MICHAEL REESE HOSPITAL et al., Appellees.

No. 41987.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 29, 1970.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 7, 1970.

James A. Dooley, Chicago, for appellant.

Clausen, Hirsh, Miller & Gorman, Chicago (John R. Caffrey, and James T. Ferrini, Chicago, of counsel), for appellee Michael Reese Hospital.

Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon, Chicago (Bernard Harrold, Chicago, of counsel), for appellee Gerald J. Menaker.

WARD, Justice.

The plaintiff, Elise Lipsey, brought suit on December 14, 1966, against Dr. Gerald Menaker and Michael Reese Hospital (hereafter, the Hospital) alleging that the defendants in 1963 negligently advised that a cancerous condition of the plaintiff was noncancerous, and as a consequence she was required to undergo a forequarter amputation of her left arm, shoulder and breast. Suit was not brought within two years of this claimed negligence (see Ill.Rev.Stat.1969, ch. 83, par. 15) but it was, the plaintiff alleged, brought within two years of the time she discovered the defendants' negligence. The defendant Menaker moved for summary judgment on the grounds that he had not been negligent and that suit had not been brought within the period of the applicable statute of limitations. The Hospital also moved for summary judgment on the ground, too, that suit had not been instituted within two years after the cause of action had accrued. On December 5, 1968, the circuit court of Cook County granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment and dismissed the complaint. The plaintiff has appealed directly to his court, alleging that the dismissal by the trial court violated rights guaranteed by both the United States and Illinois constitutions.

When the plaintiff consulted the defendant Dr. Menaker in October, 1963, concerning a lump on her left arm he advised its surgical removal. The lump was excised by Dr. Menaker at the Hospital and a biopsy was performed by the pathology department of the Hospital. The biopsy report indicated that the excised tumor was not malignant.

In March of 1966 the plaintiff again consulted Dr. Menaker. The plaintiff then complained of a lump under her arm. After examination, Dr. Menaker recommended that this lump be surgically removed. In April of 1966 the plaintiff entered the Hospital and Dr. Menaker excised several of the enlarged lymph nodes under the plaintiff's arm. He also excised a lesion from the left breast of the plaintiff. A pathology report prepared by the Hospital disclosed a malignancy both in the lymph nodes and in the left breast. It would appear that the necessity of further surgery was indicated. The plaintiff was discharged from the Hospital on April 11, 1966. She did not re-enter the Hospital and she was not again treated by Dr. Menaker. Later that month, plaintiff underwent radical surgery for the removal of her left breast, shoulder and arm at a New York hospital. A frozen section of the lump removed in 1963 at the Hospital was examined in the pathology department of the New York hospital and was pronounced malignant. It was then that the plaintiff became aware of the error made in the biopsy of 1963.

In this appeal the plaintiff contends that her cause of action for negligence did not accrue until she discovered the negligence of the defendants. She argues that in cases such as here the cause of action should not be considered as accruing until the discovery of the negligence or until the time it reasonably should have been discovered. Any other construction of the limitations statute is, she claims, arbitrary and unreasonable. She does not challenge the general validity of the limitations statute but takes the position that the trial court's construction that the statute of limitations begins to run from the time of the negligence and not from the time that the one injured discovers or would reasonably discover the negligence violates her constitutional rights. The action of the trial court deprived her, the plaintiff contends, of her right to seek a remedy against the defendants for her injuries and thus violated section 19 of article II of the Illinois constitution, S.H.A., which assures a certain remedy for every injury. Also, she says, the trial court's interpretation of the statute effected an arbitrary classification of persons situated such as the plaintiff in violation of section 22 of article IV of the constitution of Illinois and arbitrarily and unreasonably discriminated against her in violation of the due process and equal protection clauses of both the United States constitution and the constitution of Illinois.

The defendants contend there is no basis for a direct appeal to this court, since the constitutionality of the statute is not involved but merely its construction by the trial court and this is not, they argue, of constitutional dimension. They further say that the construction placed on the statute by the trial court carries out the intention of the legislature. The defendants point out that the Appellate Court of Illinois in Mosby V. Michael Reese Hospital, 49 Ill.App.2d 336, 199 N.E.2d 633, rejected the argument offered by the plaintiff here, I.e., that the cause of action in a medical malpractice case accrues at the time of the discovery of the negligence and not at the time of its occurrence. Subsequently, the defendants say, the Illinois legislature apparently considered some inequities from a rule that a medical malpractice cause of action accrues at the time of the negligence and amended the statute of limitations to provide for the so-called discovery rule when a damaging foreign substance has been left in the body in the course of the treatment. (See Ill.Rev.Stat.1969, ch. 83, par. 22.1.) It is argued, that by this action it is clear that the legislature after considering the discovery rule intended to limit the application of the rule to cases involving the leaving of a foreign substance in the body in the course of treatment.

Further, the defendants maintain, it is unquestioned that the legislature has the power to provide for periods of limitations and statutes of limitations are not unconstitutional if they are reasonable so far as the period of allowable time is concerned. An erroneous construction of such a statute does not render the statute unconstitutional.

We consider first the defendants' contention that no constitutional issue is involved warrant a direct appeal to this court. In McDaniel v. Bullard, 34 Ill.2d 487, 489, 216 N.E.2d 140, 142, which also involved a statutory construction, we said that 'While the jurisdictional issue is not entirely free from doubt we think that the plaintiff's contention raises a question under the constitution which warrants direct review. (Cf. Hall v. Gillins, 13 Ill.2d 26, 147 N.E.2d 352; Cunningham v. Brown, 22 Ill.2d 23, 174 N.E.2d 153; Siegall v. Solomon, 19 Ill.2d 145, 166 N.E.2d 5; Heckendorn v. First Nat. Bank, 19 Ill.2d 190, 166 N.E.2d 571.' We judge that here the plaintiff has posed substantial constitutional questions. Direct review by this court is warranted though disposition of the case may be reached without the necessity of our engaging these constitutional questions. McDaniel v. Bullard, 34 Ill.2d 487, 216 N.E.2d 140.

The principal issue in this appeal is whether the two-year period of limitations for tort actions established in section 14 of the Limitations Act, (Ill.Rev.Stat.1969, ch. 83, par. 15) began to to run in October of 1963 at the time of the plaintiff's first surgery and the alleged negligence, or at the time that the plaintiff discovered her true condition or should have known of it and the defendants' claimed negligence. If the latter standard should have been applied by the trial court, dismissal of the plaintiff's complaint on the ground that it was barred by the Statute of Limitations was improper.

The pertinent portions of our limitations statute provide: 'Actions for damages for an injury to the person, or for false imprisonment, or malicious prosecution, or for a statutory penalty, or for abduction, or for seduction, or for criminal conversation, shall be commenced within two years next after the cause of action accrued.' Ill.Rev.Stat.1969, ch. 83, par. 15.

'Whenever in the course of any medical, dental, surgical or other professional treatment or operation, any foreign substance other than flesh, blood or bone, is introduced and is negligently permitted to remain within the body of a living human person, causing harm, the period of limitation for filing an action for damages does not begin until the person actually knows or should have known of the facts of hurt and damage to his body; provided that no such action may be commenced more than 10 years after such treatment or operation.' Ill.Rev.Stat.1969, ch. 83, par. 22.1.

Contrary to the plaintiff's position, it has been held that a cause of action for medical malpractice accrues at the time of the negligent act. (Gangloff v. Apfelbach (1943), 319 Ill.App. 596, 49 N.E.2d 795.) However, the force of this decision has been dissipated, the plaintiff argues, because holdings of other jurisdictions relied on in that opinion have been upset and because this court in its recent decision in Rozny v. Marnul, 43 Ill.2d 54, 250 N.E.2d 656, which involved an error in survey, approved the 'discovery' rule. Too, the plaintiff urges that simple justice requires the application of the 'discovery' rule in medical malpractice cases involving negligent diagnoses and she invites attention to recent decisions in other jurisdictions which, the plaintiff says, have recognized this, E.g., Ruth v. Dight (1969), (Wash.) 453 P.2d 631; Acker v. Sorensen (1969), 183 Neb. 866, 165 N.W.2d 74; City of Miami v. Brooks (1954), (Fla.) 70 So.2d 306; Wilkinson v. Harrington (1968), (R.I.) 243 A.2d 745; Iverson v. Lancaster (1968), (N.D.) 158 N.W.2d 507 and Yoshizaki v. Hilo Hospital (1967), 50 Haw. 150, 433 P.2d 220.

The...