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No. 129436
| Jodie Vega, Conservator of the Estate of Jeffrey |
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David R. Parker |
| Hurley, a Minor, |
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Plaintiff-Appellant, |
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(Appeal from Ct of Appeals) |
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(Berrien - Maloney, P.) |
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| Lakeland Hospitals At Niles And St. Joseph, Inc., |
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William L. Henn |
| St. Joseph Medical Associates, P.C. and Beth |
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Graham K. Crabtree |
| Vanderah And Michael Speers, Co-Personal |
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| Representatives of the Estate of David Alan |
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| Speers, M.D., Deceased, |
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| Defendants-Appellees. |
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| __________________________________________ |
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Click to view briefs in Adobe format:
Plaintiff-Appellant's Brief on Appeal>>
Defendants-Appellees' (Vanderah, Speers, and St. Joseph Medical Association, P.C.) Brief on Appeal>>
Defendants-Appellees' (Lakeland Hospitals At Niles & St. Joseph, Inc.) Brief on Appeal>>
Bortz Health Care Facilities, Inc. and Warren Geriatric Village, Inc., d/b/a Bortz Health Care of
Warren's
Amici Curiae Brief>>
Background
Jodie Vega sued the defendants for medical malpractice, alleging that her son Jeffrey Hurley suffered severe, permanent mental impairment when he was 11 years old because of a misdiagnosis. The defendants moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the complaint was time-barred because Vega filed it about six months after the two-year statute of limitations expired. Vega responded that the limitations period was tolled under MCL 600.5851(1), which states: “Except as otherwise provided in subsections (7) and (8), if the person first entitled to . . . bring an action under this act is under 18 years of age or insane at the time the claim accrues, the person or those claiming under the person shall have 1 year after the disability is removed . . . to . . . bring the action although the period of limitations has run.” Vega argued that her son was “insane” within the meaning of the statute. But the circuit judge granted the defendants’ motion, finding that MCL 600.5851(1) does not apply to medical malpractice cases. Instead, another section of the statute, MCL 600.5851(7), applies to medical malpractice cases, the judge said. Subsection (7) states in part that “If, at the time a claim alleging medical malpractice accrues . . . the person has reached his or her eighth birthday, he or she is subject to the period of limitations set forth in section 5838a,” which imposes a two-year statute of limitations. Because Jeffrey Hurley was 11 years old when the malpractice claim accrued, Vega’s claim was barred by the two-year limitations period, the judge held. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial judge’s ruling in a published decision, with one judge dissenting. The majority concluded that MCL 600.5851(1), when read with MCL 600.5851(7), unambiguously excluded medical malpractice claimants from the disability grace period. The dissenting judge, however, concluded that subsection (7) “simply directs the reader to the limitations period in MCL 600.5838a. In turn, § 5838a allows a plaintiff to invoke the grace period in section 5851(1), by directly referring to it in the first sentence of § 5838a(2).” Vega sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. Her application for leave to appeal was initially denied but on reconsideration, the Supreme Court vacated its earlier order and granted leave to appeal.
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