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IS THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS REALLY THE END? THE OFT-FORGOTTEN “ACCRUAL” DOCTRINE
So what is a statute of limitations in the context of a personal injury case? Black’s Law Dictionary defines “statute of limitations” as, “A law that bars claims after a specified period; specifically, a statute establishing a time limit for suing in a civil case, based on the date when the claim accrued (as when the injury occurred or was discovered.”
As the definition suggests, the statute of limitations is a very important statute to be aware of in a personal injury matter as it is the deadline by which a Plaintiff’s lawsuit must be filed, otherwise the Plaintiff may be barred from asserting that claim in the future.
But from what date is the statute of limitations measured? Is it always from the date an injury occurred? Clearly not, as the definition itself included the language, “as when the injury occurred or was discovered.” This is a reference to what is called the accrual doctrine. So what is it?
Referring again to Black’s Law Dictionary, “accrual” is, “a doctrine delaying the existence of a claim until the plaintiff has discovered it.”
Perhaps a better definition, however, would be, “a doctrine delaying the existence of a claim until all elements of the claim have become known to the plaintiff.”
To better understand this, consider the claim of negligence. There are four elements to a negligence claims:
(1) Duty – the standard of care that the defendant owes to the plaintiff;
(2) Breach – the act or omission of the defendant that fell below or did not comport with the owed standard of care;
(3) Causation – the requirement that the substandard act or omission of the defendant must have legally and factually resulted in the alleged harm to the Plaintiff; and
(4) Damages – the harm itself, whether it be physical, financial, or emotional, for example.
Let’s image a slip & fall scenario at a grocery store where a Plaintiff slipped on a puddle of water that had been sitting in the shopping aisle for many hours. If we assume for the sake of this hypothetical that the grocery store owner had a duty to keep its floors clear of potentially hazardous conditions such as a puddle of water, and if we assumed that the grocery store owner breached that duty by allowing the water to remain for an unreasonable amount of time, and if we assume that the puddle of water and the resulting slip and fall therefrom were the direct and proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries – the injuries being the damages – would the statute of limitations necessarily be measured from the date the fall occurred?
That seems to depend on the jurisdiction, and whether or not they recognize the accrual doctrine.
So let’s examine and compare two jurisdictions: New Jersey and Alabama.
New Jersey appears to recognize the accrual doctrine. The statute of limitations for New Jersey personal injury matters appears to be provided for in N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2, and provides, in relevant part that, “Except as otherwise provided by law, every action at law for an injury to the person caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of any person within this State shall be commenced within two years next after the cause of any such action shall have accrued.”
So what does this mean? The Supreme Court of New Jersey opined, in Ben Elazar v. Macrietta Cleaners, Inc., that, “In general, our law in the private sector holds that a claim accrues on the date on which the underlying tortious act occurred. However, that same common law allows for delay of the legally cognizable date of accrual when the victim is unaware of his injury or does not know that a third party is liable for the injury.”
Imagine a person going in for a surgery somewhere in New Jersey and everything appears to go normally. The patient is discharged and sent home. About two weeks later the patient is complaining of sudden and severe arm pain. Subsequent radiology taken a two months after the surgery reveals that the intravenous needle used during the procedure to administer anesthesia broke off in the patient’s vein and is piercing a nerve in the patient’s arm.
In such a scenario, the patient arguably did not know he or she was injured until the radiological study showed the broken IV needle, and neither did the person know that the pain they were experiencing was caused by the actions of the surgeon until the radiology was performed.
Thus, although the elements of duty and breach clearly existed at the time of the surgery, the elements of causation and damages either did not exist or were unknown to Plaintiff until the date of the radiological study, and thus, there is an argument that the proper date from which to measure the statute of limitations was not the date of the surgery, which would be the date of the surgeon’s breach of the standard of care, nor would it necessarily even be the date two weeks following surgery when the patient began experiencing arm pain. Rather, the proper date the patient’s claim accrued would appear to be the date of the radiological exam, as it is the date when Plaintiff became aware of the fact that he or she was injured as a result of the surgeon’s conduct.
Unfortunately, in Alabama, this is not the case as for most personal injury matters, Alabama does not recognize the doctrine of accrual. As the Supreme Court of Alabama opined in Becton v. Rhone-Poulenc, Inc., “A plaintiff’s ignorance of the fact of injury, if there is no fraudulent concealment by the defendant, does not postpone the running of the limitations period.”
This is consistent with the language of Alabama’s statute of limitations for personal injuries, Alabama Statute § 6-2-38(l), which provides that, “All actions for any injury to the person or rights of another not arising from contract and not specifically enumerated in this section must be brought within two years,” in other words, within two years of the date of injury.
In short, what the differences in law as between New Jersey and Alabama illustrate is that if you have suffered an injury and are considering legal action, time is of the essence, and it is therefore important to contact a knowledgeable personal injury attorney as soon as possible to protect your interests and protect your potential legal claim.
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