Justice KITTREDGE.
We granted a writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision in Sims v. Amisub of South Carolina, Inc., 408 S.C. 202, 758 S.E.2d 187 (Ct.App.2014), in which the court
Respondents moved for summary judgment, asserting Petitioner's claim was barred by the statute of limitations. Petitioner contended her suit was timely filed because the three-year medical malpractice statute of limitations in section 15-3-545 of the South Carolina Code is subject to the tolling provision for insanity in section 15-3-40. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Respondents. As noted, the court of appeals affirmed as modified. We find the court of appeals properly construed section 15-3-545 in rejecting Petitioner's reliance on section 15-3-40 in arguing for an eight-year statute of limitations. We affirm.
On September 12, 2003, Kristy L. Orlowski, who was twenty-two years old and thirty-six weeks pregnant, was found unresponsive in her home by a family member. Less than twenty-four hours earlier, Orlowski had been seen by her prenatal care physician, Dr. Norman Taylor, to whom she complained of headaches, dizziness, nausea, and swelling of her hands and feet, all of which are symptoms of pre-eclampsia, a serious, potentially life-threatening complication of pregnancy.
After two-and-a-half months in the hospital, Orlowski was discharged from Piedmont on November 24, 2003, but was readmitted the following day by Respondent Dr. Edward Creagh. Dr. Creagh, a board-certified pulmonologist, diagnosed and treated Orlowski for a buildup of fluid around her lungs, prescribed an oral antibiotic, and discharged her on November 27, 2003.
Two days later, on November 29, 2003, Orlowski was once again admitted to the hospital with persistent vomiting; her pulmonary condition had worsened and the fluid around her lungs had become infected. Thereafter, Orlowski remained hospitalized through December 8, 2003, when she experienced cardiopulmonary arrest. Orlowski was resuscitated, but she suffered permanent and severe brain damage, which prevents her from caring for herself or managing her own affairs. She requires around-the-clock care.
In March 2004, the probate court appointed a conservator for Orlowski.
Specifically, Orlowski presented expert testimony that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, all of her medical problems were caused by the eclamptic seizure that occurred on September 12, 2003. Plaintiff's medical expert witness at trial testified as follows:
Orlowski's first medical malpractice suit was tried in April 2009 and resulted in a defense verdict.
Respondents denied negligence and filed a motion for summary judgment. Respondents argued that Orlowski's claims were barred by the statute of limitations and that Orlowski should be estopped from seeking to recover damages from Respondents after contending in her first lawsuit that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, all of her injuries were solely attributable to the eclamptic seizure episode on September 12, 2003, which resulted from Dr. Taylor's negligent failure to diagnose and treat her pre-eclampsia.
During the summary judgment hearing, Orlowski denied that her claims were barred by the three-year statute of
The trial court denied Respondents' summary judgment motion on the basis of the statute of limitations, but nonetheless granted summary judgment in favor of Respondents on the alternative basis that Orlowski was estopped from asserting the negligence claims in her second lawsuit against Dr. Creagh and Piedmont because "from the record in the prior action, it is clear that [Orlowski] sought to prove Dr. Taylor's negligence [] was entirely responsible for all of [Orlowski's] injuries and damages."
The parties filed cross-appeals, and the court of appeals affirmed as modified, holding that the trial court erred in finding Orlowski was estopped from bringing her second lawsuit but affirming summary judgment on the alternate ground that the three-year medical malpractice statute of limitations barred Orlowski's second lawsuit. In finding the statute of limitations barred Orlowski's second suit, the court of appeals relied upon Langley v. Pierce, 313 S.C. 401, 438 S.E.2d 242 (1993), in which this Court held the six-year statute of repose in section 15-3-545 was not tolled by the defendant's absence from South Carolina under section 15-3-30 of the South Carolina Code. This court subsequently issued a writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision.
"An appellate court reviews the grant of summary judgment using the same standard employed by the circuit court." Columbia/CSA-HS Greater Columbia Healthcare Sys., LP v. S.C. Med. Malpractice Liab. Joint Underwriting Ass'n, 411 S.C. 557,
"A cause of action accrues at the moment when the plaintiff has a legal right to sue on it." Brown v. Finger, 240 S.C. 102, 111, 124 S.E.2d 781, 785 (1962) (citing Livingston v. Sims, 197 S.C. 458, 15 S.E.2d 770 (1941); Bugg v. Summer, 1 McMul. 333 (1841)). The South Carolina Code provides a three-year statute of limitations for medical malpractice causes of action. S.C.Code Ann. § 15-3-545(A) (2005). This three-year limitation period begins to run at the time the cause of action accrues or, in other words, "from the date of the treatment, omission, or operation giving rise to the cause of action" or, under the discovery rule, from the date the injured party either knows or should know, by the exercise of reasonable diligence, that a cause of action exists for the wrongful conduct. Id.; see also Epstein v. Brown, 363 S.C. 372, 376, 610 S.E.2d 816, 818 (2005) (citing Dean v. Ruscon Corp., 321 S.C. 360, 468 S.E.2d 645 (1996)).
We emphasize that the Court is presented only with a question of statutory interpretation. The parties agree that the statute of limitations applicable in a medical malpractice action is the three-year period set forth in section 15-3-545(A). The parties disagree, however, about whether and to what extent certain statutory exceptions for persons under disability operate to toll the running of that three-year limitation period.
S.C.Code Ann. § 15-3-40 (2005).
Respondents concede Orlowski's mental incompetency satisfies the insanity standard. Therefore, the statutory construction question before us concerns only the extent to which the Legislature authorized tolling in section 15-3-545, which was enacted after section 15-3-40. See Williams v. Town of Hilton Head Island, S.C., 311 S.C. 417, 421, 429 S.E.2d 802, 804 (1993) (noting that in reconciling two statutory provisions, the "Last Legislative Expression Rule" requires that the "later legislation supersedes the earlier") (citations omitted). We hold the clear language of section 15-3-545 forecloses Orlowski's reliance on section 15-3-40 to create an effective eight-year statute of limitations due to insanity in a medical malpractice action. Subsection (A) of section 15-3-545 provides for a three-year statute of limitations (and a six-year statute of repose) for medical malpractice actions "or as tolled by this section." (emphasis added). Subsection (D) of that section provides for tolling only in one circumstance, that is, for those "under the age of majority." The unambiguous language in section 15-3-545 constrains us to conclude that the Legislature did not intend the insanity tolling provision in section 15-3-40 to apply in a medical malpractice action.
We further find the court of appeals properly relied upon this Court's decision in Langley in finding that the disability
The decision of the court of appeals is affirmed.
TOAL, C.J., PLEICONES, J. and Acting Justices JAMES E. MOORE and J. CORDELL MADDOX, JR., concur.