Methodist Healthcare System of San Antonio, Ltd., L.L.P., W.C. Schorlemer, M.D., and Robert Schorlemer, M.D. v. Emmalene Rankin

Summary

The Supreme Court of Texas held that the ten-year statute of repose for health care liability claims, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 74.251(b), does not violate the Texas Constitution’s Open Courts provision. The court concluded that the statute is a reasonable exercise of legislative police power and applies even when a plaintiff could not discover the injury before the repose period expired. The court reversed the court of appeals and rendered a take-nothing judgment for the petitioners.

Holdings

1. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 74.251(b)'s ten-year statute of repose for healthcare-liability claims is a constitutionally permissible exercise of legislative police power and does not violate the Texas Constitution's Open Courts provision, even when the plaintiff could not discover the injury before the repose period expired.
2. The discovery rule and other judicially created tolling or deferral doctrines cannot extend the ten-year repose period in section 74.251(b).
3. The Supreme Court of Texas may not create an implied Open Courts exception for retained-foreign-object claims under section 74.251(b), which expressly applies to all healthcare-liability claims.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 74.251(b), which imposes a ten-year statute of repose on healthcare-liability claims, violates the Texas Constitution's Open Courts provision when it bars a claim before the plaintiff could discover the injury.
2. Whether the Open Courts provision permits the court to create a case-by-case exception for retained-foreign-object medical-malpractice claims despite the statute's express application to all healthcare-liability claims.
3. Whether the defendants were entitled to summary judgment because Rankin's claim was filed more than ten years after the alleged act or omission.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded