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Butler v. Killoran6/15/1998
Reporter of Decisions
Argued: December 2, 1997
Walter K. Butler, III, the personal representative of the estate of Martha Butler, appeals from the judgment entered in the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Calkins, J.) granting the Defendants' motions for a summary judgment on Butler's notice of claim for wrongful death arising from medical malpractice. Butler argues that the court erred by applying the three-year statute of limitations for professional negligence pursuant to the Health Security Act, 24 M.R.S.A. Sections 2501-2985 (1990 & Pamph. 1997) to determine that his cause of action was time-barred, and that the court should have applied the two-year statute of limitations pursuant to Maine's Wrongful Death Act, 18-A M.R.S.A. Section 2-804 (1998), to find that his cause of action was timely. We affirm the judgment.
I.
On September 18, 1996, Walter K. Butler, III, the personal representative of the estate of Martha Butler, filed a notice of claim against Paul Killoran, M.D., Pen-Bay X-Ray Associates, and Penobscot Bay Medical Center seeking relief pursuant to 18-A M.R.S.A. Section 2-804, Maine's wrongful death statute. In pertinent part, the notice of claim alleged that on August 7, 1992, the Defendants caused an MRI to be performed on Martha's brain; that they negligently failed to detect on the MRI film an otherwise treatable brain aneurysm; and that the aneurysm burst on October 8, 1994, resulting in Martha's death two days later on October 10, 1994.
The Defendants filed motions for a summary judgment, arguing that the Health Security Act's three year limitations period, running from the date of the Defendants' alleged negligence in 1992, had expired before Butler commenced his cause of action in 1996. Butler opposed the motions, arguing that the Wrongful Death Act's two-year limitations period, running from the date of Martha's death in 1994, controlled his cause of action. The court granted a summary judgment to the Defendants, finding that Butler's cause of action was time-barred by the three-year statute of limitations for professional negligence claims pursuant to section 2902 of the Health Security Act, 24 M.R.S.A. Sections 2501-2985. This appeal followed.
II.
The issue before us is whether a cause of action for wrongful death arising from professional negligence must be commenced within the statute of limitations set forth in Maine's Wrongful Death Act (WDA), 18-A M.R.S.A. Section 2-804, or within the statute of limitations set forth in the Health Security Act (HSA), 24 M.R.S.A. Section 2902. Pursuant to the WDA, a plaintiff must commence the action for wrongful death within two years after the decedent's death. See 18-A M.R.S.A. Section 2-804(b). Thus, if the WDA's statute of limitations is applied to Butler's claim, his cause of action is timely. Pursuant to the HSA, however, "actions for professional negligence" must be commenced within three years after the cause of action accrues. See 24 M.R.S.A. Section 2902. An "action for professional negligence" is defined in section 2502 as
any action for damages for injury or death against any health care provider, its agents or employees, or health care practitioner, his agents or employees, whether based upon tort or breach of contract or otherwise, arising out of the provision or failure to provide health care services.
Id. Section 2502(6). For the purposes of section 2902, a cause of action accrues on the date of the act or omission giving rise to the injury. See id. Section 2902. Thus, if the HSA's three-year limitations period is applied to Butler's claim, his cause of action is time-barred.
In rev
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