McKechnie v. Stanke

857 P.2d 870, 122 Or. App. 249, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1297
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 4, 1993
Docket9104-01999; CA A75253
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 857 P.2d 870 (McKechnie v. Stanke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKechnie v. Stanke, 857 P.2d 870, 122 Or. App. 249, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1297 (Or. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

LANDAU, J.

In this action for medical malpractice, plaintiffs appeal from a summary judgment entered in favor of four of six defendants.1 We affirm.

We review a summary judgment to determine whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. ORCP 47C; Seeborg v. General Motors Corporation, 284 Or 695, 699, 588 P2d 1100 (1978). The moving party must establish that there are no genuine issues of material fact. Park v. Hoffard, 315 Or 624, 627, 847 P2d 852 (1993). We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Tolbert v. First National Bank, 312 Or 485, 494, 823 P2d 965 (1991).

Plaintiffs appear as guardians ad litem for their minor son, Shawn. They also appear as plaintiffs “for themselves as individuals.” Defendants are four physicians who are partners in a medical clinic. Over the course of eight years, beginning on November 15,1982, plaintiffs took Shawn to see defendants many times with complaints of repeated urinary tract infections and pain in the groin, abdomen and hip areas. During each visit, Shawn was examined by one of the four defendants, all of whom worked from a common medical chart. During nearly every visit, one of defendants diagnosed Shawn’s ailment as a temporary urinary tract infection. In November, 1990, plaintiffs took Shawn to another doctor and, later, to a urologist. Their diagnosis was that Shawn had a congenital defect in his urinary collection system, and that the failure to surgically correct this defect earlier had caused a number of complications to Shawn’s renal system.

Plaintiffs commenced this action against defendants on March 26, 1991. They allege that, during the eight-year period of treatment, defendants were negligent in repeatedly failing to correctly diagnose and treat Shawn’s condition. Although the complaint contains multiple specifications of negligence, none are made as to any particular defendant; the complaint alleges that all of the defendants were negligent in the same way, over the same period of time.

[252]*252Defendants answered and raised as an affirmative defense what we have called the ‘ ‘five-year qualified statute of ultimate repose” found in ORS 12.110(4). Jones v. Salem Hospital, 93 Or App 252, 254, 762 P2d 303 (1988), rev den 307 Or 514 (1989). That statute provides in relevant part:

“An action to recover damages for injuries to the person arising from any medical, surgical or dental treatment, omission or operation shall be commenced * * * within five years from the date of the treatment, omission or operation upon which the action is based.” ORS 12.110(4).

Defendants moved for summary judgment on the basis of that statute. They argued that plaintiffs’ claims were time-barred by ORS 12.110(4) to the extent that treatment occurred more than five years before the action was commenced. The trial court agreed and granted the motions.

Plaintiffs assign error to the trial court’s decision on two grounds. First, they argue that the misdiagnosis that they have alleged constitutes a continuing tort, which did not accrue until defendants’ treatment of Shawn ended. Because the last treatment occurred in 1989, they argue, the five-year statute of ultimate repose does not apply to their claim filed in 1991.

We rejected that argument in Lesch v. DeWitt, 118 Or App 397, 847 P2d 888, rev allowed 317 Or 162 (1993). There, the plaintiff alleged that the defendant physician had negligently treated her for a number of years, beginning nine years before she filed her complaint. The trial court held that ORS 12.110(4) barred recovery for injuries caused by any treatment provided more than five years before the filing of the complaint. On appeal, the plaintiff argued that the trial court had erred, because her claim was one for “continuous treatment,” which she characterized as a type of “continuous tort.” She argued that, when treatment is ongoing, the entire course of treatment is considered to be a single wrong, forming the basis for a claim that accrues when the treatment ceases. We disagreed:

“[A]ny claim brought on the continuous tort theory is subject to the five-year period of ultimate repose. Under the express terms ofORS 12.110(4), the ultimate repose period is five years from the act or omission complained of. It matters not when the claim has accrued, or even if it has accrued. The [253]*253statute provides that every action for medical malpractice shall be commenced within five years from the date of the treatment, omission or operation upon which the action is based, regardless of the date the treatment ceased or the date on which the plaintiff discovered the alleged negligence. ”118 Or App at 399-400. (Emphasis in original; footnote omitted; citation omitted.)

We find no reason to construe the statute differently in this case.

Plaintiffs’ second ground for reversal is that, even if their claim is not a continuous tort, the five-year statute of ultimate repose was subject to a tolling provision of ORS 12.110(4), which provides that, when an action has not been commenced within the five-year period “because of fraud, deceit or misleading representation,” the action must be commenced within two years of discovery of the fraud, deceit or misleading representation. According to plaintiffs, defendants’ misdiagnoses of Shawn’s condition constituted misleading representations, which they discovered less than two years before they filed their complaint. Plaintiffs are wrong.

The meaning of the term “misleading statements,” as used in ORS 12.110(4), was first addressed in Duncan v. Augter, 286 Or 723, 596 P2d 555 (1979). In that case, a surgeon removed the plaintiffs gallbladder. During the operation, the surgeon also removed the plaintiffs appendix. Immediately after the operation, the surgeon informed the plaintiff of the appendectomy. Seven years later, the plaintiff still suffered abdominal pains. Additional surgery disclosed that a portion of her appendix had been left inside her body. The plaintiff sued the surgeon who had performed the appendectomy. When the defendant raised as a defense the five-year statute of ultimate repose, the plaintiff responded that the statute had been tolled by the defendant’s misleading statement that he had removed all of her appendix.

The Supreme Court disagreed. It held that, when a misrepresentation is careless or innocent, as opposed to deliberate, it must concern “something other than the careful performance of the very treatment” that forms the basis of plaintiffs complaint in order to constitute a “misleading representation” within the meaning of ORS 12.110(4).

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Related

Urbick Ex Rel. Urbick v. Suburban Medical Clinic, Inc.
918 P.2d 453 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1996)
McKechnie v. Stanke
862 P.2d 507 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
857 P.2d 870, 122 Or. App. 249, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckechnie-v-stanke-orctapp-1993.