Sanchez V. South Hoover Hospital

We consider the application of the statute of limitations in medical malpractice actions and, particularly, construe section 340.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure as it read prior to September 24, 1975. That section then provided that the limitations period for actions founded in medical malpractice was "four years after the date of injury or one year after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever first occurs." The section further recited that "[this] time limitation shall be tolled for any period during which [the treating physician or hospital] . . . has failed to disclose any act, error, or omission upon which such action is based and which is known or through the use of reasonable diligence should have been known to him."