 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
KENNEDY v. MCLEAN3/22/1989
We affirm the dismissal of the untimely Id. at 1002.
In Myrick we restricted even the prospective scope of the newly declared discovery rule to foreign-body surgical malpractice. Any extension of the new rule to other types of injury occurring on or after May 4, 1982, we expressly "le open for future case-by-case adjudication." Box v. Walker, 453 A.2d 1181, 1183 (Me. 1983). We have never at any time stated or suggested the possibility that recovery could be extended to injuries of any kind occurring before the May 4, 1982, cutoff date, and we expressly held in Stearns v. Roberts, 506 A.2d 1158, 1159 (Me. 1986) (per curiam), that if any diagnostic malpractice claim could be held to accrue on the date of discovery, the date of injury must be on or after May 4, 1982. If Stearns standing alone would leave any doubt as to the significance of that date for any medical malpractice action, it was resolved by another case decided the same day as Stearns. In Myrick v. Central Maine Medical Center, 506 A.2d 1156 (Me. 1986) (per curiam), we held that the same plaintiffs who had prevailed against a surgeon in Myrick v. James were time-barred in their separate action, arising from the same surgical procedure, against the hospital where the operation was performed. We explained:
Until [the Myrick I] decision, reliance on the date-of-injury
rule by health care professionals and institutions was not
unreasonable. This court will not consider on its merits the
question whether the discovery rule is available to a
particular plaintiff in a suit against such a professional or
institution except in circumstances where the question arises
in regard to alleged medical malpractice that took place on or
after May 4, 1982.
Id. at 1158 (citation omitted).
The entry is: Judgment affirmed.
All concurring.
Page 1 Maine Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|