Garcia on Behalf of Garcia v. La Farge

Decision Date02 March 1995
Docket NumberNo. 22160,22160
Citation1995 NMSC 19,119 N.M. 532,893 P.2d 428
PartiesAnthony Theodore GARCIA and Debbie Lucille Garcia, on Behalf of Anthony David GARCIA, their minor and incapacitated son, and on behalf of themselves, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. C. Grant La FARGE, M.D., Defendant-Appellee.
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
OPINION

RANSOM, Justice.

On February 24, 1992, Anthony Theodore Garcia and Debbie Lucille Garcia made application to the Medical Review Commission, and on November 17 they sued C. Grant La Farge, M.D., for medical malpractice, negligence, and misrepresentation in the making of a diagnosis of the condition of their minor son, Anthony David Garcia. Dr. La Farge moved for summary judgment under the three-year statute of limitations in the Medical Malpractice Act, NMSA 1978, Sec. 41-5-13 (Repl.Pamp.1989). Dr. La Farge had neither examined nor evaluated Anthony after February 8, 1989, nor had he made any representations concerning Anthony's condition after that date. Anthony's cause of action arose out of a cardiac arrest on November 16, 1991. The Garcias challenged Section 41-5-13 as a violation of due process and equal protection, and as prohibited special legislation. In the alternative, the Garcias urged that the statute of limitations should be tolled because Dr. La Farge had misrepresented his qualifications and had fraudulently concealed Anthony's condition. The district court rejected the Garcias' constitutional claims, found no genuine issue of material fact on the Garcias' claim that the statute of limitations should be tolled, and granted summary judgment in favor of Dr. La Farge.

The Garcias timely filed a notice of appeal in the Court of Appeals, reasserting their constitutional claims and their claim that the statute of limitations should be tolled. The Court of Appeals certified the Garcias' appeal to this Court pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 34-5-14(C) (Repl.Pamp.1990). Because Section 41-5-13 left an unreasonably short period of time within which the Garcias could file their claims after Anthony's cause of action accrued, we hold under the precedent of Terry v. New Mexico State Highway Commission, 98 N.M. 119, 645 P.2d 1375 (1982), that Section 41-5-13 deprived the Garcias of due process.

Facts. On December 6, 1988, while running on the playground at his school, nine-year-old Anthony Garcia became dizzy and nearly fainted. Soon thereafter Anthony's parents took him to his pediatrician, Dr. Jacqueline Krohn, who examined Anthony and recommended that he see a cardiologist. Dr. Krohn referred the Garcias to Dr. La Farge who, on December 12, took a history and examined Anthony. Dr. La Farge did not run an electrocardiogram (EKG) that day, but he assured the Garcias that Anthony was fine. He instructed the Garcias to watch for spells of fainting and to report to Dr. Krohn if they noticed "anything unusual about a pattern of fainting." Dr. La Farge reported his conclusions to Dr. Krohn by letter stating that he "did not schedule ... [an] ECG or echo, since he did not think it warranted at this point" and that he "could not in all honesty think other than that [Anthony] has an innocent pulmonic ejection murmur."

On January 24, 1989, Anthony fainted again--this time while running during a physical education class. The Garcias took Anthony back to Dr. Krohn who had an EKG run and made an appointment for Anthony to see Dr. La Farge. Dr. La Farge examined Anthony on February 8 and conducted a treadmill exercise test. After viewing the results of this test, Dr. La Farge determined that Anthony was "borderline" but informed the Garcias that Anthony was fine and that there was no need for him to limit his activities in any way. Dr. La Farge informed Dr. Krohn by letter that he believed "we have eliminated enough of the important negatives for us to be able to relax for a while and simply observe the passing scene." Regarding Anthony's continued episodes of fainting, Dr. La Farge concluded that "I continue to have to ascribe this to some form of vasovagal syncope, quite likely related to some element of hyperventilation." February 8, 1989, was the last occasion on which Dr. La Farge examined Anthony and the last occasion on which Dr. La Farge made any representations regarding Anthony's health to Anthony, his family, or his physicians.

After February 8, Anthony experienced two more fainting spells, the first on September 29, 1989, and the second on September 27, 1990. Relying on Dr. La Farge's conclusion that Anthony did not have a heart condition, Dr. Krohn sought a neurological explanation for Anthony's fainting spells. After having an electroencephalogram (EEG) run on Anthony, she referred him to Dr. Ruth Atkinson, an Albuquerque neurologist. Relying on the results of the EEG, which showed Anthony's neurological condition to be normal, and relying on Dr. La Farge's conclusions about Anthony's heart, Dr. Atkinson informed the Garcias that Anthony was fine and that they should no longer worry.

On November 16, 1991, while swimming with his father at a hotel in Albuquerque, Anthony again fainted, but this time he went into cardiac arrest. Rescue personnel resuscitated him approximately twenty minutes later. By the time Anthony was resuscitated, however, he had suffered irreversible brain damage.

Anthony was taken to the University of New Mexico Medical Center where he was examined by pediatric cardiologists, Drs. Stuart Rowe and William Berman, Jr. These doctors had an EKG run on Anthony and immediately diagnosed Long QT syndrome. We are advised that Long QT syndrome is an elongation of the Q-T interval, which measures the duration of the electrical activity of the ventricles, the lower chambers of the heart. The syndrome is sometimes characterized by exercise-induced fainting and may produce a heart arrhythmia that in turn often leads to cardiac arrest and resulting brain damage. The syndrome is treatable with oral medication. Left untreated, it results in death or cardiac arrest and brain damage in nearly seventy-five percent of afflicted persons. The Garcias contend that evidence of Long QT syndrome can be found on every page of the EKG tracing reviewed by Dr. La Farge on February 8, 1989.

Proceedings. On February 24, 1992, the Garcias filed an application with the Medical Review Commission. See NMSA 1978, Sec. 41-5-15(A) (Repl.Pamp.1989) (requiring application to Medical Review Commission before medical malpractice action may be filed). They complained that acts of malpractice were committed by Dr. La Farge in December 1988 and February 1989. On November 17, 1992, the Garcias filed a complaint in district court alleging that Dr. La Farge, together with Drs. Krohn and Atkinson, failed to possess and apply the knowledge and to use the skill and care ordinarily used by well-qualified specialists. The Garcias also claimed that each of these doctors negligently failed to rule in or rule out Long QT syndrome as the cause of Anthony's fainting, negligently failed to consult with one another, and failed to prevent Anthony's cardiac arrest and resulting brain damage. Finally, the Garcias claimed that Dr. La Farge materially misrepresented his qualifications as a pediatric cardiologist and negligently represented as his diagnosis of Anthony's condition that he was just a "fainter".

On March 9, 1993, Dr. La Farge filed his motion for summary judgment. The Garcias responded by filing a motion to declare the New Mexico Medical Malpractice Act unconstitutional, together with an accompanying memorandum. The Garcias specifically claimed that because Section 41-5-13 bars a plaintiff's claims three years after the underlying act of malpractice regardless of his or her inability to discover the malpractice until an injury manifests itself, it deprives persons such as the Garcias of equal protection and due process. The Garcias also claimed that Section 41-5-13 confers a benefit in the form of an abbreviated limitations period on a select group ("qualified health care providers") for the purpose of securing to that group lower insurance rates at the expense of malpractice victims. The Garcias argued that conferring such a benefit violates Article IV, Section 24 of the New Mexico Constitution, which prohibits the legislature from enacting a "special law" when a general law may be enacted and from enacting special laws pertaining to the limitation of actions.

The district court heard argument and orally granted Dr. La Farge's motion for summary judgment. Thereafter, Dr. La Farge prepared for presentment an order reflecting the court's decision that Section 41-5-13 was not a violation of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, nor of the prohibition against special legislation, and that there was no issue of material fact regarding the Garcias' fraudulent concealment claims. The Garcias indicated that they intended to move for reconsideration of the district court's decision, and at the hearing for presentment of the order the district court again heard argument on the summary judgment issues.

At the presentment hearing the district court determined that its initial decision was correct and entered an order concluding that there was no genuine issue of fact as to whether the statute of limitations had run and whether there was fraudulent concealment. Further, relying on Armijo v. Tandysh, 98 N.M. 181, 183-84, 646 P.2d 1245, 1247-48 (Ct.App.1981) (holding that the limitations period provided in Section 41-5-13 is not an equal protection or due process violation), cert. quashed, 98 N.M. 336, 648 P.2d 794 (1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1016, 103 S.Ct. 377, 74 L.Ed.2d 510 (1982), and Kern ex rel. Kern v. St. Joseph Hospital, Inc., 102 N.M. 452, 455, 697 P.2d 135, 138 (...

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