Underlying Facts
A benign cyst on Linda Berry’s right kidney was first detected on a computerized tomography (CT) scan taken at Mercy Medical Center in 2004. Ms. Berry visited Mercy over the next several years for a variety of reasons, and the cyst was noted as an incidental finding on subsequent CT scans, including one taken during a visit to the ER on October 1, 2009, when Dr. Paul Grossmann treated her for colitis. This time, a radiologist noted the mass had grown in size from the prior scans, suggesting the mass should be further evaluated. But, according to the plaintiffs, no one mentioned the growing cyst to Ms. Berry or her primary care physician until another CT scan was taken when she broke her shoulder seven years later. By then it was too late. Ms. Berry was treated for renal cancer in April 2016, the cancer metastasized to her bones, and she passed away from cancer in 2019.
Prior to her death, in 2018 Ms. Berry filed a medical malpractice action against Dr. Grossmann and the Mercy affiliates for failing to disclose the kidney mass in October 2009. But she ran up against Iowa’s six-year statute of repose found in Iowa Code section 614.1(9) (2018), which barred her claims because she initiated her case more than six years after Dr. Grossmann’s actions. A statute of repose governs how long a potential defendant is subject to liability for his actions and runs from the time of the defendant’s action, regardless of when the injury is incurred or discovered, and may cut off a cause of action before it has accrued or even before there has been an injury. Ms. Berry’s estate asserted the defendants should be equitably estopped from raising the statutory bar under the doctrine of fraudulent concealment. Fraudulent concealment requires fraudulent, or intentional, concealment of the plaintiff’s cause of action. And the concealment must be distinct from the underlying act being concealed. Otherwise, there would never be a time limit for failure-to-disclose-type claims.
A plaintiff seeking to estop a defendant from raising a statute of repose defense must prove four things: (1) the defendant has made a false representation or has concealed material facts; (2) the plaintiff lacks knowledge of the true facts; (3) the defendant intended the plaintiff to act upon such representations; and (4) the plaintiff did in fact rely upon such representations to his prejudice. Equitable estoppel is not premised on the fact that the defendant has harmed the plaintiff but on the fact that—having harmed the plaintiff—the defendant also concealed the existence of a cause of action.
The Supreme Court of Iowa held in the case it was deciding: “Berry is essentially asserting a substantive claim of fraudulent concealment premised on a duty by Dr. Grossmann to disclose the incidental results of her CT scan. But she brought her claim more than six years after Dr. Grossmann failed to make that disclosure … To avoid the statute of repose, Berry must identify some act of concealment that is independent of the duty to disclose the CT scan results. Unable to do so, Berry cannot rely on fraudulent concealment to estop defendants from asserting the six-year statute of repose as a defense to Berry’s claims. Berry brought her claims more than six years after the defendants’ conduct, and the claims are barred by the statute of repose. See Iowa Code § 614.1(9)(a). The district court properly granted summary judgment, and the court of appeals erred in reversing.”
Source Downing v. Grossmann, No. 20–1124.
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