Little v. St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co.,

Little v. St. Paul Mercury Ins. Co.,
No. CA 01-771 (Ark. Ct. App. Feb. 6, 2002)

A
patient in a hospital psychiatric ward committed suicide. His sister visited
the hospital to inquire about the circumstances surrounding her brother’s death
and was given copies of his medical records. The records revealed that 15-minute
checks which had been ordered for her brother were not done. When the sister
asked the hospital administrator why the 15-minute checks had not been completed
as ordered, he responded that he would have to check with the staff. He did
not reveal that two hospital employees had been terminated for failure to conduct
the checks or that one of the nurses who was fired had also been the attending
nurse for another patient who committed suicide just two months earlier. Almost
four years after her brother’s death, the sister received an anonymous letter
revealing these facts.

The sister filed a medical malpractice claim against the hospital, later substituting
the hospital’s insurance carrier. The insurer filed for summary judgment, claiming
that the two-year statute of limitations had run. The woman claimed that the
statute of limitations was tolled due to the hospital’s fraudulent concealment
of the facts surrounding her brother’s death.

The Court of Appeals of Arkansas found that the hospital administrator’s statements
to the sister were more than mere nondisclosure, stating that "it was an
affirmative misrepresentation." Nonetheless, it held that there was no
fraudulent concealment because the basis for the malpractice suit was in the
medical records, which had been supplied. It affirmed the lower court’s grant
of summary judgment because the statute of limitations had run.