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nity, see St. 1986, c. 351, §§ 7-9; authorized regulations requiring malpractice insurance for all physicians, § 12; increased the disciplinary authority of the board of registration in medicine, §§ 13-14; modified other judicial procedures and remedies, §§ 21-22, 24-27; and directed the JUA to offer incentives pertaining to physicians' risk management techniques and malpractice claims, §§ 35-36.
Statutory rules of construction also support our conclusion that the statute of repose is not subject to either equitable estoppel or tolling pursuant to G. L. c. 260, § 12 (relating to fraudulent concealment). At the time the statute of repose was enacted, we had already decided the case of Tindol v. Boston Hous. Auth., 396 Mass. 515, 518-519 (1986), in which we interpreted G. L. c. 260, § 2B, a statute of repose for certain architectural and construction workers that contains language similar to that later added to § 4. In the Tindol case, we reaffirmed the sharp distinction between statutes of limitations and statutes of repose, holding that the latter was "of an entirely different legal genre," the effect of which was "to abolish the remedy and not merely to bar the action." Id. at 518, 519. We presume that "the Legislature knew pre-existing law and the decisions of this court," Condon v. Haitsma, 325 Mass. 371, 373 (1950), and intended the new language to be interpreted in like manner.
In addition, the Legislature allowed only one exception to the statute of repose, that pertaining to actions arising from a foreign object left in the body. See G. L. c. 260, § 4. No exclusion or tolling provision expressly applying to the statute of repose was enacted for cases involving fraudulent concealment. "The fact that the Legislature specified one exception . . . strengthens the inference that no other exception was intended." LaBranche v. A.J. Lane & Co., 404 Mass. 725, 729 (1989).
Enforcement of the statute of repose as a rigid prohibition of action is consistent with our cases, which are clear that statutes of repose are not subject to any form of equitable tolling, Protective Life Ins. Co. v. Sullivan, 425 Mass. 615, 631 n.19 (1997), except as specifically provided by the statute. In the case of Tindol v. Boston Hous. Auth., supra at 517-518, we concluded that a tolling provision for minors contained in G. L. c. 260, § 7, did not modify the similar repose provisions of § 2B. We also held that the defendants could not be added to an ongoing lawsuit after the term of the statute of repose expired. Id. at 519. Likewise, we held in Sullivan v. Iantosca, 409 Mass. 796, 798 & n.3 (1991), that the fraudulent concealment provisions of G. L. c. 260, § 12, did not toll § 2B where the alleged acts of fraudulent concealment were the same acts that gave rise to the underlying claim.
The object of a statute of repose, as stated by Justice Story, "is to suppress fraudulent and stale claims from springing up at great distances of time, and surprising the parties, or their representatives, when all the proper vouchers and evidences are lost, or the facts have become obscure, from the lapse of time, or the defective memory, or death, or removal of witnesses." Spring v. Gray, 22 F. Cas. 978, 984-985 (C.C.D. Me. 1830), aff'd, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 151 (1832). "There comes a time when [a defendant] ought to be secure in his reasonable expectation that the slate has been wiped clean of ancient obligations . . . ." Klein v. Catalano, 386 Mass. 701, 709 (1982), quoting Rosenberg v. North Bergen, 61 N.J. 190, 201 (1972) (interpreting G. L. c. 260, § 2B).
Identification of any specific, ascertainable endpoint is "in some manner arbitrary but the drawing of the line . . . is a task to be e
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