Garber v. Ansell

63 Pa. D. & C.4th 426, 2003 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 129
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Washington County
DecidedJune 25, 2003
Docketno. GD 99-2338
StatusPublished

This text of 63 Pa. D. & C.4th 426 (Garber v. Ansell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Washington County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garber v. Ansell, 63 Pa. D. & C.4th 426, 2003 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 129 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2003).

Opinion

GILMORE, J.,

This matter is before the court on defendants’ joint motion for summary judgment. This matter arises from the plaintiff’s alleged injuries suffered as a result of a latex allergy she developed during the course of her employment as a nurse’s aide from 1979 until 1997. Plaintiff further alleges that the allergy she developed was due to her exposure to latex gloves manufactured by the various defendants.

The defendants have filed various motions for summary judgment, but before this court can address any of [428]*428those motions, this court must decide whether the plaintiff’s complaint was timely filed or is barred by the two-year statute of limitations for a negligence claim.1 The plaintiff alleges that the “discovery rule” applies to this case which tolls the statue until June 12,1997.2 The defendants allege the plaintiff’s claim should be barred because there are sufficient facts under the circumstances to put the plaintiff on notice of a pending claim. Defendants also allege that the plaintiff’s claim for breech of warranty of merchantability, breach of implied warranty of fitness, and breach of expressed warranty shall be barred by the four-year statute of limitations and will be addressed later in this opinion.

In reviewing a motion for summary judgment, the court must consider the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact must be resolved against the moving party. Pennsylvania State University v. County of Centre, 532 Pa. 142, 145, 615 A.2d 303, 304 (1992). Summary judgment will be granted only in those cases which are free and clear from doubt. Marks v. Tasman, 527 Pa. 132, 589 A.2d 205 (1991). At the same time, however, a non-moving party may not successfully avoid summary judgment by simply resting [429]*429upon the mere allegations or denials contained in the pleadings. Pa.R.C.P. 1035.3(a). In other words, to defeat a motion for summary judgment a non-moving party must present sufficient evidence on an issue essential to her case and on which she bears the burden of proof such that a jury could return a verdict in her favor. Ertel v. Patriot-News Co., 544 Pa. 93, 101-102, 674 A.2d 1038, 1042 (1996). The non-moving party’s inability to advance such evidence establishes that there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. With this standard in mind, the court turns to consider the defendant’s contentions.

Pennsylvania law provides a two-year statute of limitation on actions to recover damages for injuries to the person caused by another’s wrongful act, negligence, or fraud. 42 Pa.C.S. §§5524(2), 5534(7). Furthermore, the running of the statutory period in which to file suit begins at the time an injury is sustained. Bohus v. Beloff, 950 F.2d 919 (3d Cir. 1991). A plaintiff need not know the exact medical cause of an injury, nor that the injury is due to another’s negligent conduct, nor that a cause of action exists before the statutory period will begin to run. Id. Rather, “once a plaintiff possesses the salient facts concerning the occurrence of his injury and who or what caused it, he has the ability to investigate and pursue his claim,” thus causing the statutory period to commence. Berardi v. Johns-Manville Corp., 334 Pa. Super. 36, 482 A.2d 1067 (1984).

The Pennsylvania courts have made it clear that lack of knowledge, mistake or misunderstanding will not toll the running of the limitations period, even if the party does not discover the injury until it is too late to pursue a [430]*430remedy. Pocono International Raceway Inc. v. Pocono Produce Inc., 503 Pa. 80, 468 A.2d 468 (1983). However, the courts have granted plaintiffs some leeway by recognizing the “discovery rule,” which provides, “where the existence of the injury is not known to the complaining party and such knowledge cannot reasonably be ascertained within the prescribed statutory period, the limitations period does not begin to run until the discovery of the injury is reasonably possible.” Hayward v. Medical Center of Beaver County, 530 Pa. 320, 325, 608 A.2d 1040, 1043 (1992).

The plaintiff is relying on the “discovery rule” to toll the statutory period from running. The law pertaining to the discovery rule is well settled. The “discovery rule” is an exception to the two-year statute of limitations for a negligence action, and arises from the inability of the injured, despite the exercise of due diligence, to know of the injury or its cause. Burton-Lister v. Siegel, Sivitz and Lebed Associates, 798 A.2d 231, 237 (Pa. Super. 2002). The court further stated that “the very essence of the discovery rule in Pennsylvania is that it applies only to those situations where the nature of the injury itself is such that no amount of vigilance will enable the plaintiff to detect an injury.” Id. citing Dalrymple v. Brown, 549 Pa. 217, 701 A.2d 164 (1997).

The issue for this court to decide is whether the plaintiff, exercising reasonable diligence, knew or reasonably should have known that she had been injured and that her injuries had been caused by the gloves manufactured by the defendant. Furthermore, did the plaintiff exercise the level of diligence in ascertaining the cause of her injuries as a reasonable person would employ under the [431]*431facts and circumstances presented in this particular case? The plaintiff alleges her claim should not be barred by the statute of limitations because not only did the plaintiff not know the exact medical cause of her injury, but also she was unaware that she had suffered any injury at all.

The plaintiff’s complaint alleges that she developed a latex allergy during the course of her employment as a nurse’s aide from 1979 until 1997. On or about January 23, 1995, while working as a certified nurses’ aide at Washington Hospital, plaintiff first complained of an injury to her hands which she immediately reported to the Washington Hospital Employee Health Department. The plaintiff completed a form documenting her dry and cracked hands and in that report, plaintiff used the words, “Latex gloves break my hands out.” In the fall of 1996, plaintiff began experiencing additional allergy-type symptoms, including a runny nose and sneezing, which she had reason to know these symptoms could indicate an allergic reaction since she had her son tested for allergies when he contracted similar symptoms. On April 13, 1997, plaintiff experienced an incident of hives while at work and was subsequently taken to the emergency room at Washington Hospital.

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Related

Denise Bohus v. Stanley A. Beloff
950 F.2d 919 (Third Circuit, 1991)
Sowers v. Johnson & Johnson Medical, Inc.
867 F. Supp. 306 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1994)
Hayward v. Medical Center
608 A.2d 1040 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)
Dalrymple v. Brown
701 A.2d 164 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1997)
Silverman v. Samuel Mallinger Co.
100 A.2d 715 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Pennsylvania State University v. County of Centre
615 A.2d 303 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)
Ertel v. Patriot-News Co.
674 A.2d 1038 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1996)
Burton-Lister v. Siegel, Sivitz and Lebed Associates
798 A.2d 231 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Pocono International Raceway, Inc. v. Pocono Produce, Inc.
468 A.2d 468 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1983)
Marks v. Tasman
589 A.2d 205 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1991)
Berardi v. Johns-Manville Corp.
482 A.2d 1067 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)
Pitts v. Northern Telecom, Inc.
24 F. Supp. 2d 437 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
63 Pa. D. & C.4th 426, 2003 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garber-v-ansell-pactcomplwashin-2003.