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Christensen v. Philip Morris USA Inc.6/8/2005
very inequity the discovery rule was designed to eradicate, we now hold this type of exposure does not constitute the requisite knowledge within the meaning of the rule. Affirmatively speaking, we determine the discovery rule contemplates actual knowledge - that is express cognition, or awareness implied from knowledge of circumstances which ought to have put a person of ordinary prudence on inquiry [thus, charging the individual] with notice of all facts which such an investigation would in all probability have disclosed if it had been properly pursued. In other words, a purchaser cannot fail to investigate when the propriety of the investigation is naturally suggested by circumstances known to him; and if he neglects to make such inquiry, he will be held guilty of bad faith and must suffer from his neglect.
Id. at 636-38 (Citations omitted; emphasis added).
Elucidating the concept of inquiry notice in Pennwalt Corp., 314 Md. 443, a product liability case, the Court of Appeals explained:
n simple terms, a plaintiff is only on inquiry notice, and thus the statute of limitations will begin to run, when the plaintiff has "knowledge of circumstances which would cause a reasonable person in the position of the plaintiff to undertake an investigation which, if pursued with reasonable diligence, would have led to knowledge of the alleged [tort]."
Id. at 448-49 (Citation omitted).
Further, the Pennwalt Court commented, 314 Md. at 441, that "an action accrues when the `nature and cause of the injury,' and not merely when the nature of the injury, are known or should have been known." (Emphasis added). The Court added that the "application of the discovery rule in a product liability action requires that the statute of limitations should not begin to run until the plaintiff knows or through the exercise of due diligence should know of injury, its probable cause, and either manufacturer wrongdoing or product defect." Id. at 452 (emphasis added); see id. at 453 (" imitations do not begin until a plaintiff knows or reasonably should know the nature and cause of his harm.") (emphasis added).
Numerous Maryland appellate cases are consistent with Pennwalt, and have recognized that a claim accrues when the plaintiff knows or should know of the harm and its probable cause. See, e.g., Frederick Rd. Ltd. P'ship, 360 Md. at 96 (stating, in a legal malpractice case, that "before an action is said to have accrued, a plaintiff must have notice of the nature and cause of his or her injury") (emphasis added); United Parcel Service, Inc., 336 Md. at 579 (quoting Hecht, and recognizing that a claim accrues when the plaintiff "`knows or should know of the injury, its probable cause, and ... [the defendant's] wrongdoing....'"); Owens-Illinois v. Armstrong, 326 Md. 107, 120-21 (1992) (recognizing that a cause of action accrues when a reasonably diligent plaintiff ascertains the nature and cause of his injury); Trimper v. Porter-Hayden, 305 Md. 31, 52 (1985) (recognizing, in a latent disease case, that an injured person's cause of action accrues "either 1) when he ascertains, or through the exercise of reasonable care and diligence should have ascertained, the nature and cause of his injury, or 2) at death, whichever first occurs") (emphasis added); Harig v. Johns-Manville Products Corp., 284 Md. 70, 83 (1978) (concluding that, "in situations involving the latent development of disease, a plaintiff's cause of action accrues when he ascertains, or through the exercise of reasonable care and diligence, should have ascertained, the nature and cause of his injury) (emphasis added); Benjamin, slip op. at 27 (suggesting that Trimper "indicates that the knowledge that a reasona
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