Tafoya Ex Rel. Tafoya v. Doe

670 P.2d 582, 100 N.M. 328
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 7, 1983
Docket5906
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 670 P.2d 582 (Tafoya Ex Rel. Tafoya v. Doe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tafoya Ex Rel. Tafoya v. Doe, 670 P.2d 582, 100 N.M. 328 (N.M. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

WALTERS, Chief Judge.

On defendant hospital’s motion for summary judgment, the trial court granted summary judgment to defendants on Sally Tafoya’s claims for herself and her infant daughter against the hospital and one of its employees. The court made findings and conclusions in its summary judgment as follows:

THE COURT FINDS:
1. Plaintiff Sally Tafoya received an incorrect RH factor blood transfusion at Carrie Tingley Hospital in March of 1972.
2. Plaintiff Sally Tafoya learned of a blood transfusion related immunization reaction in the summer of 1979, in connection with the impending birth of her child, Plaintiff Andrea Tafoya, a minor, which occurred on August 26, 1979.
3. Plaintiff Sally Tafoya thereafter checked into the possibility of an incorrect transfusion at St. Joseph’s Hospital through her attorney but did not recall the 1972 Carrie Tingley transfusion and no inquiry was made into it until July of 1980.
4. Notice of a claim under the New Mexico Tort Liability Act was not given until July 31, 1980.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Plaintiff Sally Tafoya had knowledge of the existence of the injury and its cause as of August 26, 1979.
2. Plaintiff Sally Tafoya failed to give notice to the Risk Management Division of the claim under the New Mexico Tort Liability Act within the ninety (90) days prescribed by law.
3. The notice requirement of the New Mexico Tort Liability Act is not unconstitutional.

While recognizing that this suit concerns separate claims for the mother and the infant, we will refer to Sally Tafoya as the plaintiff or appellant. She contends that:

(1) Notice was not necessary under Cardoza v. Town of Silver City, 96 N.M. 130, 628 P.2d 1126 (Ct.App.1981);
(2) Defendant hospital did not deny, by affirmative defense, that it had actual notice, and a question of fact on that issue remained;
(3) Written notice was given within 90 days after Sally learned that the wrong transfusion had been made at Carrie Tingley Hospital eight years earlier;
(4) The notice provision of NMSA 1978, § 41-4-16 of the Tort Claims Act is unconstitutional as to Andrea;
(5) It was error to dismiss the complaint against John Doe.

We discuss the arguments in the order listed.

A. The mother’s claim.

1. Necessity of notice.

It is plaintiff’s position that if the governmental entity creates a condition that causes injury, no notice is required. She relies on Cardoza v. Town of Silver City, supra, as so holding. The flaw in her reliance is that Cardoza was not concerned with notice to the Town of a claim for damages, which is the “notice” requirement imposed by the Tort Claims Act, NMSA 1978, 41-4-1, et seq. Cardoza discussed only whether the Town had to have actual or constructive notice of a street defect creating a dangerous condition before it could be held liable for negligence in failing to repair the condition. The Cardoza notice question addressed the negligence or foreseeability issue; the Tort Claims Act notice provision operates in conjunction with the statute of limitations section on the issue of a timely claim.

This point has no merit.

2. Question of actual notice.

Plaintiff argues that § 41-4-16(B) provides for waiver of written notice if the governmental entity “had actual notice of the occurrence” complained of. Defendant hospital’s affirmative defenses on the notice issue were that the claim was “barred by ... § 41-4-15 and § 41-4-16” of the Act, and that the hospital “did not at any time material have actual notice of the conduct alleged.” The documents supplementing the pleadings would indicate that more than 90 days passed from the time Sally became aware of the blood problem until she gave written notice. Nothing was shown by defendant to support its claimed absence of actual notice; the hospital’s transfusion record attached to plaintiff’s interrogatories shows that plaintiff’s blood was typed at Carrie Tingley Hospital as Rh A-positive on March 14, 1972 and Rh A-positive donor blood was transfused on March 15,1972. It is not disputed that Sally’s blood was Rh A-negative. The record and defendant’s denial of actual notice are at odds. A factual matter existing, it should not have been decided against plaintiff by summary judgment. See Emery v. University of New Mexico Med. Center, 96 N.M. 144, 628 P.2d 1140 (Ct.App.1981).

3. Timeliness of the Written Notice.

Shortly before August 26,1979, when Andrea was born, Sally Tafoya’s attending physician discovered an Rh-positive sensitization in her blood and alerted her to the likelihood of a blood immunization problem in the child she was carrying. The problem manifested itself when the baby was born with a severely-involved blood immunization condition, requiring an immediate exchange transfusion, and at least eight transfusions thereafter. Sally was advised that she should have no more children because the vaccine normally administered for a second pregnancy, when the Rh-negative factor was present, would have no effect upon a mother whose blood had been immunized.

Sally’s doctor told her that the two reasons for sensitization in a woman having her type of Rh-negative blood were an earlier pregnancy or a transfusion of Rh-positive blood at some time in her life. Mrs. Tafoya had not been pregnant before, but recalled having had one or more blood transfusions when bone surgery had been performed on her at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1971. A check of St. Joseph’s records in October 1979 reflected nothing to indicate any blood mismatching at St. Joseph’s.

In July 1980, Sally Tafoya remembered that she had had a bone graft at Carrie Tingley Hospital during a lengthy continuation of the treatment begun at St. Joseph’s. She had completely forgotten about that operation until then. She immediately notified her attorney and, as soon as the Tingley records disclosed the transfusion of A-positive blood in March of 1972, a written notice of claim was made to the proper statutory agent.

The time for giving notice in a medical malpractice action is calculated “from the time the injury manifests itself in a physically objective manner and is ascertainable.” Peralta v. Martinez, 90 N.M. 391, 564 P.2d 194 (Ct.App.1977) (emphasis in original opinion).

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670 P.2d 582, 100 N.M. 328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tafoya-ex-rel-tafoya-v-doe-nmctapp-1983.