The Mississippi Tort Claims Act (“MTCA”), Mississippi Code Section 11-46-1 to -23 (Rev. 2019), provides a one-year statute of limitations against a state entity that begins to run from the date of the “tortious, wrongful or otherwise actionable conduct on which the liability phase of the action is based”; “failure to file within the time allowed is an absolute bar to any further proceedings under this chapter.” Miss. Code Ann. § 11-46-11(3)(a), (b) (Rev. 2019). Further, the MTCA’s one-year statute of limitations provision is subject to the discovery rule found in Mississippi Code Section 15-1-36(1) (Rev. 2019). The discovery rule tolls the running of the limitations period until a “plaintiff should have reasonably known of some negligent conduct, even if the plaintiff does not know with absolute certainty that the conduct was legally negligent.”
The Supreme Court of Mississippi stated in a 2007 medical malpractice case that in medical negligence cases, the focus is on when a plaintiff, exercising reasonable diligence, should have first discovered the negligence, rather than the injury. The question of whether a statute of limitations is tolled by the discovery rule turns on the factual determination of what the plaintiff knew and when.
In the medical malpractice case decided by the Supreme Court of Mississippi on August 6, 2026, “Carter believed that some type of negligence had occurred while she was in the hospital talking with her mother. She knew that “something [was] done wrong.” Again, “this Court made clear in Hayes and Lowery that the plaintiff’s own suspicions regarding possible negligent conduct starts the clock running.” Henley, 965 So. 2d at 650. Likewise, Carter did not need her medical records or a second opinion in order to file suit. Accordingly, Carter knew that negligent conduct might have occurred no later than the date of her conversation with her mother while she was still in the hospital shortly after her shunt procedure on January 19, 2018. Therefore, the statute of limitations began to run by late January 2018.”
Latent Injury
Carter contended that (1) she suffered a latent injury, and (2) because she suffered a latent injury, she could not have known of any negligent conduct on UMMC’s part until she obtained a second opinion, hired an attorney, and received her medical records. She contended that at her May 23, 2018 appointment with Dr. Dillon, she first became aware of the alleged omission/misdiagnosis by UMMC.
The Mississippi Supreme Court responded: “This Court has held that if a latent injury is not present, the discovery rule would not apply … For an injury to be latent it must be undiscoverable by reasonable methods … the focus in medical-negligence cases involving latent injuries is centered on the date that the alleged act or omission with reasonable diligence might have been discovered as opposed to the nature of the injury itself … We find irrelevant that Carter did not have all of the specifics as to the injury until May 2018. Carter and her mother both testified to her suspicion of negligence after her shunt procedure in late January 2018, which meets the threshold to toll the statute of limitations as discussed in Henley, 965 So. 2d at 650. Therefore, Carter’s argument regarding latent injury is without merit … We find Carter’s claims to be time barred by the MTCA .”
Source University of Mississippi Medical Center v. Carter, NO. 2024-IA-00038-SCT.
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