Timberlake v. A.H. Robins Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 09 March 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-2180,83-2180
• Parties: 38 UCC Rep.Serv. 174 Lee Ann TIMBERLAKE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. A.H. ROBINS COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1363

727 F.2d 1363

38 UCC Rep.Serv. 174

Lee Ann TIMBERLAKE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. A.H. ROBINS COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 83-2180.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

March 9, 1984.

Jamail, Kolius & Mithoff, Richard Warren Mithoff, Kathleen D. Oliver, Houston, Tex., for plaintiff-appellant.

Fulbright & Jaworski, Terry O. Tottenham, David B. Weinstein, Houston, Tex., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before RUBIN and RANDALL, Circuit Judges, and MITCHELL ^*, District Judge.

RANDALL, Circuit Judge:

In this diversity case governed by Texas law, plaintiff-appellant Lee Ann Timberlake appeals the district court's summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee A.H. Robins Company. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. Factual and Procedural Background.

Timberlake was fitted with a Dalkon Shield intrauterine device (IUD) in May of 1974. The Dalkon Shield was manufactured and marketed by Robins. Timberlake wore the IUD without adverse effect for approximately four years. In March, 1978, Timberlake developed various symptoms, including lower abdominal pain, chills, and fever. She sought medical attention, and her doctor removed the IUD. Her symptoms did not abate but grew progressively worse until, in April, 1978, she was diagnosed as having acute pelvic inflammatory disease and underwent a hysterectomy. At the time Timberlake was told that she would have to have the surgery and after it was performed, her doctor told her that her problems had been caused by the IUD.

In April, 1981, Timberlake saw a television program concerning the Dalkon Shield and became aware that Robins may have been negligent in its manufacture and sale of the product. She filed the instant suit on August 5, 1981, alleging negligence, strict liability in tort, and breach of express and implied warranties.

Robins moved for summary judgment, asserting that all applicable statutes of limitations had expired at the time Timberlake commenced her action. The district court granted the motion, holding that the negligence and strict liability claims were barred by Texas' two-year statute of limitations in personal injury cases; and that the warranty claims were barred by operation of the Texas Uniform Commercial Code's four-year statute of limitations.

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(e), summary judgment is appropriate only where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact." The burden of showing that no material fact is in dispute is upon the party seeking summary judgment, and every reasonable inference arising from the record must be resolved in favor of the party opposing the motion. Penton v. Crown Zellerbach Corp., 699 F.2d 737, 741 (5th Cir.1983). With this standard of review in mind, we turn to the instant case.

II. The Texas "Discovery Rule" and the Two-Year Statute of Limitations.

Under Texas law, an action for personal injury must be brought "within two years after the cause of action shall have accrued." Tex.Rev.Stat.Ann. art. 5526 (Vernon 1982 Supp.). In general, the accrual period is measured from the time of the injury. See, e.g., Robinson v. Weaver, 550 S.W.2d 18, 19 (Tex.1977). An exception to this rule has been applied by the Texas courts, however, "in some situations in which a claimant was unable to know of his injury at the time of actual accrual; the exception is known as the 'discovery rule.' " Id. Application of the discovery rule has permitted claimants otherwise time-barred to proceed in suits stemming from foreign objects left in the body during surgery, see Gaddis v. Smith, 417 S.W.2d 577 (Tex.1967); unsuccessful vasectomies, see Hays v. Hall, 488 S.W.2d 412 (Tex.1972); and excessive radiation treatment for cancer, see Grady v. Faykus, 530 S.W.2d 151 (Tex.Civ.App.--Corpus Christi 1975, writ ref'd n.r.e.). In each of these cases, application of the discovery rule was considered appropriate because the circumstances presented a situation in which the claimant was unable to know of his or her injury at the time it actually occurred. As the court noted in Hays v. Hall, in the context of an unsuccessful vasectomy:

If the limitation period is measured from the date of the operation, and if the discovery of fertility, and therefore the injury, is not made until after the period of limitation has run, the result is that legal remedy is unavailable to the injured party before he can know he is injured. A result so absurd and so unjust ought not to be possible.

488 S.W.2d at 414.

In the case before us, as we have noted, Timberlake knew of her injury and that it was, in her doctor's opinion, caused by the Dalkon Shield at the time the hysterectomy was performed, which was more than two years prior to the institution of this suit. On appeal, however, she argues that the discovery rule should be applied to permit her action to go forward because she was unaware until April, 1981 that there was possible wrongdoing by Robins. Timberlake urges that Texas law applies a three-pronged analysis with regard to the discovery rule, and that all three elements--injury, causation in fact, and legal injury--must coalesce before the statute of limitations begins to run. We are not persuaded that this is an accurate statement of the applicable law.

Timberlake maintains that her three-pronged theory is supported by our decision in Fusco v. Johns-Manville Products Corp., 643 F.2d 1181 (5th Cir.1981). There, the plaintiff became aware in 1967 that exposure to asbestos could be harmful. In 1970 he learned that he had asbestosis, but did not file suit until 1978. Applying Texas law, we held that under article 5526, "the limitations period commences when the buyer discovers, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have discovered, the injury." Id. at 1183. Thus, we affirmed summary judgment for the defendant. Although Timberlake urges us to read Fusco to require knowledge of actual injury, cause, and legal injury, we do not accept this interpretation. We stated in Fusco that the plaintiff "discovered, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered, his injury in 1970." 643 F.2d at 1183 (emphasis added). Because the plaintiff knew prior to being diagnosed that exposure to asbestos could be hazardous, the issue of "legal injury" was not raised, nor did we address it.

Timberlake also relies on our decision in Roman v. A.H. Robins Co., 518 F.2d 970 (5th Cir.1975). Again, this reliance is misplaced. In Roman we held that the plaintiff was time-barred under article 5526 where she learned in 1968 that her injury was probably caused by an allergic reaction to the defendant's product, but did not file suit until 1973. Timberlake asserts that Roman supports her position because there, the plaintiff did not argue that she lacked knowledge of the defendant's alleged wrongdoing. Timberlake's argument, however, is a non sequitur. As in Fusco, in Roman we were not called upon to, nor did we, address the "legal injury" issue; neither case supports the inference that had we done so, we would have concluded that Texas law compels us to employ the three-pronged analysis urged by Timberlake.

As we have previously noted, Texas courts have extended the discovery rule to apply to a variety of situations. See, e.g., Gaddis v. Smith, supra (foreign object); Hays v. Hall, supra (negligent vasectomy); Grady v. Faykus, supra (excessive X-ray treatment). In each of these cases, the statutory period was held to have commenced upon the plaintiff's discovery of the injury or its cause. None implies that the statutory period should be tolled until the plaintiff learns that the defendant's conduct may have been wrongful. We recognize that the Hays court referred to the difficulty, in vasectomy cases, of discovering the existence of a "legal injury;" thus justifying the tolling of the statute of limitations until the "true facts" concerning the failure of the operation were, or should have been, discovered. 488 S.W.2d at 414; see also Grady v. Faykus, supra. However, we do not consider this language an authoritative basis upon which to accept Timberlake's argument. In Hays the plaintiff's knowledge of injury and wrongdoing was necessarily simultaneous; thus, that the court employed the "legal injury" language is not dispositive. ¹ Clearly, the relevant "injury" occurred when the plaintiff discovered the injury and its cause in fact. And in Robinson v. Weaver, supra, the Texas Supreme Court refused to extend the discovery rule to medical misdiagnosis cases, noting that the rule postpones commencement of the statutory period when the plaintiff is "unable to know of his injury at the time of actual accrual." 550 S.W.2d at 19 (emphasis added).

We conclude that Texas law ² neither countenances nor compels us to apply the discovery rule in the situation before us. Timberlake knew of her injury and its cause in March, 1978. At that point, the statute of limitations was triggered and she had two years in which to investigate any possible wrongdoing by Robins. Her failure to institute this action within the two-year period bars her from proceeding on the theories of negligence and tort. ³

III. Fraudulent Concealment.

The district court held that the doctrine of fraudulent concealment was inapplicable to this case, because Timberlake knew in March, 1978 that she had been injured and that the cause of her injury was the Dalkon Shield. Timberlake asserts that summary judgment on this issue was improper because a genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether Robins fraudulently concealed a defect in the Dalkon Shield.

Under Texas law, fraudulent concealment is an affirmative defense to an assertion that the statute of limitations has run. In Nichols v. Smith, 507 S.W.2d 518, 519 (Tex.1974), the Texas...