Caves v. Yarbrough

Summary

The Supreme Court of Mississippi addresses whether medical-negligence and wrongful-death claims brought under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act were barred by the statute of limitations. The court held that the limitations period begins when all elements of the tort exist and, under stare decisis, recognized a discovery rule for Mississippi Tort Claims Act claims. It reversed summary judgment and remanded for determination of when the claimants knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and alleged tortious conduct.

Holdings

1. The MTCA statute of limitations begins to run when all elements of a tort or cause of action are present, including damage proximately resulting from the defendant's negligence.
2. The MTCA limitations period is subject to a discovery rule because stare decisis requires continued recognition of the rule previously adopted in Barnes v. Singing River Hospital and subsequently incorporated into the statute through legislative reenactment without correction.
3. The MTCA limitations period does not begin to run until the claimant knows, or by exercising reasonable diligence should know, both of the injury and of the act or omission that proximately caused it.
4. Claims brought under Mississippi's wrongful-death statute may include survival claims, true wrongful-death claims, estate claims, and other derivative claims, and each claim is subject to its own limitations period.
5. Summary judgment was improper because the record did not establish when the claimants knew or, through reasonable diligence, should have known both of the injury and the alleged tortious act or omission.

Questions Presented

1. When does the one-year statute of limitations under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act begin to run?
2. Does a discovery rule apply to claims brought under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act even though the statute does not expressly contain one?
3. What must a claimant know, or reasonably be expected to know, before the MTCA limitations period begins to run?
4. Whether summary judgment was proper when the record did not establish as a matter of law when the claimants knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and the alleged tortious conduct.
5. How the limitations period applies to wrongful-death and related claims arising from an allegedly negligent act.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded