Lee v. Gaufin

• Decision Date: 30 November 1993
• Docket Number: Nos. 20995,21063 and 900595,s. 20995
• Citation: 867 P.2d 572
• Parties: Suzanne LEE and Nathan Lee Garza, through his guardian, Suzanne Lee, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Dr. Lynn GAUFIN, Defendant and Appellee. Gary GRIFFITHS, guardian ad litem for Kevin G. Meehan and Patrick B. Meehan, and Marian J. Meehan, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Dr. J. Dallas VAN WAGONER, Defendant and Appellee.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 572

867 P.2d 572

Suzanne LEE and Nathan Lee Garza, through his guardian, Suzanne Lee, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Dr. Lynn GAUFIN, Defendant and Appellee.

Gary GRIFFITHS, guardian ad litem for Kevin G. Meehan and Patrick B. Meehan, and Marian J. Meehan, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Dr. J. Dallas VAN WAGONER, Defendant and Appellee.

Nos. 20995, 21063 and 900595.

Supreme Court of Utah.

Nov. 30, 1993.

Robert J. DeBry, Edward T. Wells, G. Steven Sullivan, Murray, and David M. Jorgensen, Salt Lake City, for Lee and Garza.

Elliott J. Williams, Salt Lake City, for Gaufin.

Roger P. Christensen, Richard L. Evans, Salt Lake City, for Griffiths and Meehan.

Elliott J. Williams, Kurt M. Frankenburg, Salt Lake City, for Van Wagoner.

STEWART, Justice:

These cases have been consolidated sua sponte because they raise similar issues as to the constitutionality of the statute of limitations and repose provisions in the Utah Health Care Malpractice Act (Malpractice Act or Act). In each case, the trial court held that those provisions barred the complaints. We reverse and remand for trials on the merits in both cases.

1. The Garza Case, Nos. 20995 and 21063

Suzanne Lee, the mother of Nathan Lee Garza, a minor, filed this medical malpractice action against Dr. Lynn Gaufin on behalf of her son for personal injuries and on her own behalf for medical expenses she incurred for her son.

Nathan Lee Garza was born August 16, 1979. In his first year, he began to experience shaking spells, and his mother took him to a pediatrician who recommended that he see defendant Dr. Lynn Gaufin, a neurologist. Dr. Gaufin examined Nathan on August 13, August 29, and October 24, 1980, and diagnosed his condition as encephalomyelitis. Approximately nine months after the first visit to Dr. Gaufin, Ms. Lee took Nathan to another doctor, who diagnosed his condition as hydrocephalus.

Ms. Lee initiated the procedure for bringing a medical malpractice suit against Dr. Gaufin by filing a notice of claim on May 6, 1983, but then instructed her attorney to discontinue the litigation. She later changed her mind and filed a second notice of claim on November 9, 1984, and a complaint on March 8, 1985. The complaint was filed more than four years after Dr. Gaufin's diagnosis in 1980 and more than two years after the diagnosis of hydrocephalus.

Ms. Lee alleges that hydrocephalus is treatable if promptly diagnosed and that Nathan's symptoms temporarily disappeared after receiving treatment for hydrocephalus. Ms. Lee also alleges that Nathan is now mentally retarded and permanently handicapped because of Dr. Gaufin's failure to correctly diagnose his condition. The complaint asked that Ms. Lee be reimbursed for Nathan's medical expenses and that Nathan be awarded damages for his personal injuries.

Dr. Gaufin filed a motion for a judgment on the pleadings, and the trial court ruled that the two-year statute of limitations in § 78-14-4(1) of the Malpractice Act barred both Ms. Lee's claim for herself and her claim for her son. ¹ The court ruled that § 78-14-4(1) and (2) of the Act "clearly demonstrate[s] the legislative intent to withdraw the protection of causes of action of minors which may have previously been afforded by reason of Section 78-12-36(1)." On appeal, Ms. Lee challenges the trial court's ruling only as to Nathan's claim for personal injuries, and not as to her claim for medical expenses.

2. The Meehan Case, No. 900595

Gary Griffiths, as guardian ad litem for twins Kevin G. and Patrick B. Meehan, filed a complaint on their behalf, alleging that Dr. J. Dallas Van Wagoner was negligent in delivering the twins and that his negligence caused them permanent brain damage. ² The complaint was filed January 6, 1989, some seven and one-half years after the births. The complaint asserted that Ms. Meehan, the mother of the twins, did not discover their legal causes of action until after she had consulted with attorneys in December 1988, and that the complaint was filed within two years of her discovery of her children's negligence claims. See Foil v. Ballinger, 601 P.2d 144 (Utah 1979). Pursuant to a motion to dismiss, the district court ruled that the Meehans' personal injury claims were terminated by the four-year statute of repose in § 78-14-4(1) of the Malpractice Act. On appeal, Griffiths argues that the statute of repose and the provision in § 78-14-4(2) barring the tolling of statutes of limitations and repose as to the claims of minors are unconstitutional.

Section 78-14-4(1) of the Malpractice Act contains a statute of limitations and a statute of repose. The two-year statute of limitations runs from the time the "plaintiff or patient" discovers or "should have discovered" the injury. The four-year statute of repose runs from the time the negligent act is committed and terminates all legal remedies for malpractice not filed within four years, even if the injury caused by the malpractice could not have been discovered by the plaintiff or patient during that period.

Section 78-14-4(2) of the Malpractice Act subjects the claims of minors to the two- and four-year limitations periods by nullifying § 78-12-36, which tolls limitations periods for minors and incompetents. Section 78-12-36 states:

If a person entitled to bring an action, other than for the recovery of real property, is at the time the cause of action accrued, either under the age of majority or mentally incompetent and without a legal guardian, the time of the disability is not a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action.

The Garza complaint was filed more than two years after Nathan's mother learned of Dr. Gaufin's alleged misdiagnosis and more than four years after Dr. Gaufin's last examination of Nathan. The Meehan complaint was filed more than seven years after Dr. Van Wagoner's alleged malpractice but less than two years after their mother first learned of their legal claims for malpractice. Thus, Nathan Garza's claim is barred by both the two- and four-year limitations provisions, and the Meehans' claims are barred by the four-year provision.

The plaintiffs in both cases contend that the provision in § 78-14-4(2) that subjects the claims of minors to the two- and four-year limitations periods is unconstitutional because it violates the uniform operation of the laws provision in Article I, section 24 of the Utah Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs also assert that the provision violates the due process clauses of the state and federal constitutions. ³ In addition, Griffiths argues that the four-year limitations period is a statute of repose that is unconstitutional under the guaranteed remedy provision of Article I, section 11 of the Utah Constitution and the law established in Berry v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 717 P.2d 670 (Utah 1985).

I. STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS AND REPOSE

As background for understanding the nature of the legal and constitutional issues pertaining to the two- and four-year limitations periods in § 78-14-4(1), we begin with a brief discussion of the nature of statutes of limitations and statutes of repose. Statutes of limitations are essentially procedural in nature and establish a prescribed time within which an action must be filed after it accrues. They do not abolish a substantive right to sue, but simply provide that if an action is not filed within the specified time, the remedy is deemed to have been waived unless the plaintiff did not know of the facts giving rise to the cause of action. See Myers v. McDonald, 635 P.2d 84, 86 (Utah 1981). Thus, the barring of the remedy is caused by a plaintiff's failure to take reasonable steps to assert the cause of action within the time afforded by the statute.

The fixing of a limitations period is highly judgmental and is determined by the Legislature's weighing a number of general policies, such as whether particular types of cases require speedy resolution, the nature of the evidence typically used in litigating a particular type of case, the consequences to putative plaintiffs, defendants, and third persons who might be affected by the litigation, and the interest of society at large in not leaving disputes unresolved for long periods of time. Such policy considerations often suggest different limitations periods for different causes of action, even as to actions within the same general branch of the law. Thus, the Legislature has fixed different limitations periods for different types of torts. For example, actions for wrongful death are subject to a two-year limitations period, Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-28(2); actions for slander, assault, and false imprisonment are subject to a one-year period, Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-29(4); and most personal injury actions for negligence are subject to a four-year period, Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-25; see Retherford v. AT & T Communications, Inc., 844 P.2d 949, 975 (Utah 1992); Thomas v. Union Pac. R.R., 1 Utah 235, 236 (1875). Similar variations occur with respect to other types of causes of action.

The Legislature's judgment in fixing the length of a limitations period is accorded great latitude under the uniform operation of the laws provision in Article I, section 24 of the Utah Constitution. See Allen v. Intermountain Health Care, Inc., 635 P.2d 30, 32 (Utah 1981); Toronto v. Sheffield, 118 Utah 460, 470-71, 222 P.2d 594, 599 (1950). Indeed, this Court has specifically held that, as applied to adults, the two-year limitations period for medical malpractice does not violate Article I, section 24, even though the limitations period for most other negligently caused personal injuries is four years. Allen, 635 P.2d at 32. The Legislature also has broad latitude to set limitations periods under the state and federal due process clauses. See Wilson v. Iseminger, 185 U.S. 55, 63, 22 S.Ct. 573, 575, 46 L.Ed. 804 (1902).

Unlike statutes of limitations, statutes of...