Court Holds Discovery Rule Did Not Apply: The Court of Appeals Fifth District of Texas at Dallas (“Texas Appellate Court”) held in its Memorandum Opinion filed on August 9, 2022, “Because it is undisputed that Villegas’s claims are health care liability claims, the statute of limitations began to run from the occurrence of the breach or tort or, if that date is not ascertainable, the last date of the relevant course of treatment, or the last date of the relevant hospitalization. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 74.251(a).”
Specifically, the Texas health care liability statutory limitations provides in pertinent part: “[N]o health care liability claim may be commenced unless the action is filed within two years from the occurrence of the breach or tort or from the date the medical or health care treatment that is the subject of the claim or the hospitalization for which the claim is made is completed[.]”
Hence, health care liability claims have a two-year limitations period, commencing from (1) the occurrence of the breach or tort, (2) the last date of the relevant course of treatment, or (3) the last date of the relevant hospitalization. A plaintiff may not choose the most favorable date that falls within the three categories: if the date the alleged tort occurred is ascertainable, limitations must begin on that date and further inquiry into the second and third categories is unnecessary. If the date is not ascertainable, the plaintiff must establish a course of treatment for the alleged injury, in which the last treatment date becomes relevant to determining when limitations begins.
In the case it was deciding, the Texas Appellate Court stated: “Villegas [the plaintiff] concedes that she did not receive treatment from appellees after February 21, 2017, but argues that the discovery rule saves her claims from the statute of limitations. Appellees argue that the discovery rule no longer applies in health care liability claims. We agree with appellees.”
“Villegas alleges that appellees “breached the applicable standard of care while providing medical care and treatment to [Villegas] by engaging in numerous improper acts and omissions” including failing to provide proper care and treatment to the wound, failing to refer Villegas to a wound care specialist, failing to monitor Villegas’s condition, and failing to render immediate care to Villegas when she showed signs of infection. Villegas informed the Center in her email on March 14, 2017, that she was seeing another wound care specialist for treatment, lost faith in and would not be returning to see Dr. Rai. Subsequent visits to Dr. Rai’s office on August 7 and 10, 2017, were to request and retrieve her medical records. The last date Villegas received medical treatment from Dr. Rai was February 21, 2017. Because appellees conclusively established that Villegas did not receive medical treatment from Dr. Rai after February 21, 2017, that is the last date on which appellees could have breached the standard of care as it was the last date of the relevant course of treatment. See Shah, 67 S.W.3d at 841. Thus, Villegas’s claims accrued, at the latest, on February 21, 2017. As Villegas filed this lawsuit on August 6, 2019, more than two years later, Villegas’s claims were time-barred.”
Source Villegas v. Rai, M.D., No. 05-21-00121-CV.
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