Chicoine v. Bignall

• Court: Idaho Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: JOHNSON; BAKES, C.J., BISTLINE and McDEVITT, JJ., and REINHARDT
• Citation: Chicoine v. Bignall, 122 Idaho 482, 835 P.2d 1293 (Idaho 1992)
• Decision Date: 10 August 1992
• Docket Number: No. 19113,19113
• Parties: Father R. Denis CHICOINE, Sister Mary Bernadette Janet Urban, Alvina Urban, and Christ the King Priory Inc., an Idaho corporation, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Bliss O. BIGNALL, Jr., and Annette R. Bignall, husband and wife, Defendants-Respondents. Boise, March 1992 Term

Page 1293

835 P.2d 1293

122 Idaho 482

Father R. Denis CHICOINE, Sister Mary Bernadette Janet Urban, Alvina Urban, and Christ the King Priory Inc., an Idaho corporation, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Bliss O. BIGNALL, Jr., and Annette R. Bignall, husband and wife, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 19113.

Supreme Court of Idaho,

Boise, March 1992 Term.

Aug. 10, 1992.

Kaiser and Douglas, Spokane, Washington, for plaintiffs-appellants. Russell K. Jones, argued.

Evans, Craven & Lackie, P.S., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for defendants-respondents. Jarold P. Cartwright, argued.

JOHNSON, Justice.

This is a legal malpractice case. The issue presented is whether the two-year statute of limitations contained in I.C. § 5-219(4) barred the claim. We hold that the claim is not barred by the statute of limitations. Objectively ascertained, none of the damage caused by the lawyer's negligence occurred more than two years prior to the filing of the action.

I.

THE BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS.

Bliss O. Bignall, a lawyer, represented Father R. Denis Chicoine and several other persons associated with Christ the King Priory, Inc. (referred to collectively as Chicoine) in a lawsuit brought against them by Jerry Bryant O'Neil and his children. In 1983, a jury awarded damages against Chicoine. Bignall filed a timely motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (j.n.o.v.) on behalf of Chicoine. Later, Bignall filed a motion for new trial. The trial court granted Chicoine's motion for j.n.o.v. On O'Neil's appeal, this Court reversed the trial court's order. O'Neil v. Schuckardt, 112 Idaho 472, 733 P.2d 693 (1986) (O'Neil I ).

Following the remand directed in O'Neil I, the trial court considered and granted Chicoine's motion for new trial. On a second appeal by O'Neil, this Court reversed the trial court's order granting a new trial because Bignall had failed to serve the motion for new trial within the time allowed by I.R.C.P. 59(b) (1980) prior to the 1987 amendment to the rule. O'Neil v Schuckardt, 116 Idaho 507, 777 P.2d 729 (1989) (O'Neil II ).

In December 1989, Chicoine brought this suit against Bignall for professional malpractice based on Bignall's late filing of the motion for new trial. Bignall moved for summary judgment on the ground that I.C. § 5-219(4) barred the action. The trial court granted summary judgment, ruling that Chicoine suffered some damage because of Bignall's negligence more than two years prior to the filing of the lawsuit. Chicoine appealed, asserting that the claim against Bignall did not accrue until this Court ruled in O'Neil II that Bignall's motion for new trial was not timely.

II.

THE "SOME DAMAGE" RULE.

Before determining whether the trial court correctly granted summary judgment in this case, we find it helpful to review the limits of the "some damage" rule the Court has employed in applying I.C. § 5-219(4). In the most recent legal malpractice case in which the Court applied this rule the Court said:

Although not stated in the statute, this Court has interpreted the law to require "some damage" before the action accrues and the limitation period begins to run.

Bonz v. Sudweeks, 119 Idaho 539, 541, 808 P.2d 876, 878 (1991).

In Bonz, the Court traced the origin of the rule to Stephens v. Stearns, 106 Idaho 249, 678 P.2d 41 (1984), where the Court said:

It is axiomatic that in order to recover under a theory of negligence, the plaintiff must prove actual damage. As a general rule "the statute of limitations does not begin to run against a negligence action until some damage has occurred." W. Prosser, Handbook of the Law of Torts § 30 (4th ed. 1971).

Id. at 254, 678 P.2d at 46.

In Corbridge v. Clark Equip. Co., 112 Idaho 85, 730 P.2d 1005 (1986), the Court summarized the application of the "some damage" principle for cases to which I.C. § 5-219(4) applies:

The interpretation of I.C. § 5-219(4) has caused this Court some difficulties over the years. The cases are too numerous to cite. However, we have never held that a statute of limitations may run before an aggrieved party suffers damages. The authority to do so is highly doubtful, since it is axiomatic that a party has no right to sue for damages until actual injury occurs.

Id. at 88-89, 730 P.2d at 1008-09 (emphasis in original).

To set the "some damage" rule in its full historical and jurisprudential context we turn to an earlier medical malpractice case, in which the Court reviewed the evolution of I.C. § 5-219(4) in relation to decisions of the Court:

Prior to March 24, 1971, I.C. § 5-219(4), the statute of limitations applicable to professional malpractice actions, in essence provided that an action had to be filed within two years of the alleged professional malpractice; the statute made no reference whatsoever to the interrelationship between the accrual of a cause of action and knowledge of a cause of action. Without the benefit of legislative guidance, this Court adopted the so-called "discovery exception" in cases in which foreign objects were negligently left in a patient's body. In Billings v. Sisters of Mercy of Idaho, 86 Idaho 485, 389 P.2d 224 (1964), we held that "the cause of action [in such cases] does not accrue until the patient learns of, or in the exercise of reasonable care and diligence should have learned of the presence of [the] foreign object in his body." Id. at 498, 389 P.2d at 232. In Renner v. Edwards, 93 Idaho 836, 475 P.2d 530 (1969), aff'd on rehearing, we extended the discovery rule to cases of misdiagnosis and held that the statute of limitations did not begin to run until the patient knew or should have known of the physician's misdiagnosis.

However, soon after our decision in Renner, and perhaps partly in response thereto, the legislature substantially amended I.C. § 5-219(4). 1971 Idaho Sess.Laws, ch. 180, § 1. By amending I.C. § 5-219(4), the legislature narrowed the scope of Renner and, in large part, defined when a cause of action accrues for the purposes of applying the statutory period of limitations in professional malpractice actions. Under amended I.C. § 5-219(4), the discovery exception first recognized by this Court in Billings v. Sisters of Mercy of Idaho, 86 Idaho 485, 389 P.2d 224 (1964), is limited to cases involving foreign objects and fraudulent concealment. In all other professional malpractice actions, "the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued as of the time of the occurrence, act or omission complained of...." The action must be brought within two years of that time.

Holmes v. Iwasa, 104 Idaho 179, 181-82, 657 P.2d 476, 478-79 (1983) (footnotes omitted).

To complete the history of the Court's interpretation of the predecessor of the current I.C. § 5-219(4), we also note that under that version the Court "expressly decline[d] to create a new 'discovery' exception for legal malpractice actions." Martin v. Clements, 98 Idaho 906, 910, 575 P.2d 885, 889 (1978). In Martin, the Court ruled that the cause of action against an attorney for negligence in probating a will accrued on the date of the decree of distribution, rather than eighteen years later when the decedent's heirs discovered the lawyer's negligence. In commenting on the significance of Martin in Stephens, 106 Idaho at 255 n. 1, 678 P.2d at 47 n. 1, the Court said: "[W]e note that the cause of action in Martin began to run at the time of the negligent act because damage occurred immediately at that time."

In a recent legal malpractice case, we pointed out:

[I]n Streib v. Veigel, 109 Idaho 174, 706 P.2d 63 (1985), this Court extended the date for the accrual of actions for professional malpractice where the negligence is continuing, until the date that damage occurred.

In Streib, an accountant had negligently prepared income tax returns for taxpayers, claiming certain deductions that were not allowable. The taxpayers filed an action against the accountant more than two years after the last return was prepared. The accountant moved for summary judgment on the basis of I.C. § 5-219(4). This Court held that the action for professional malpractice accrued when the Internal Revenue Service assessed the taxpayers for penalties and interest due to the deductions that were not allowable. The Court characterized the negligence of the accountant as "continuing in nature until [the taxpayers] suffer damage." 109 Idaho at 179, 706 P.2d at 68. The assessment by the IRS was considered by the Court to be the date when damage to the taxpayers occurred. The taxpayers were allowed two years after that date within which to file their action against the accountant.

Griggs v. Nash, 116 Idaho 228, 232-33, 775 P.2d 120, 124-25 (1989).

In Griggs, the plaintiffs based their claims against the lawyer on the lawyer's alleged failure to: (1) clear the title to property, and (2) inform one of the clients of an appraised value of the property. For each of these claims, the Court determined that the lawyer's alleged negligence did not cause any damage until the clients incurred attorney fees to defend lawsuits brought against them because of the alleged negligence. Id. at 233-34, 775 P.2d at 125-26. Based on this analysis, the Court concluded that the action of the clients against the lawyer did not accrue under I.C. § 5-219(4) until the damage occurred.

In Bonz, the defendant lawyers had represented clients whose property was the subject of a lis pendens. When the dispute over the property was settled the lawyers recorded a release of lis pendens in the wrong county. This resulted in the lis pendens remaining of record in the county where the clients' property was located. The Court held that some damage did not occur until a third-party investor discovered the lis pendens on the clients' property and subsequently decided not to invest in development of the property. 119 Idaho at 540, 808 P.2d at 877.

Perhaps most pertinent to this case is the legal malpractice case of Treasure Valley Bank v. Killen & Pittenger, 112 Idaho 357,...