Justice v. Natvig

In this medical malpractice action against a surgeon, we decide when the applicable two-year statute of limitations began to run on a claim for an allegedly negligent operation, when that operation was followed by eight years of non-negligent treatment by the same surgeon.

For the purposes of ruling upon the defendant’s plea of the statute of limitations, the parties stipulated the following facts. On January 11, 1977, Dr. Ralph A. Natvig, a general surgeon, negligently severed Harry L. Justice’s common bile duct, rather than his cystic bile duct, 1 in the surgical removal of Justice’s gall…