Dorothy Gaddis, Petitioners v. William C. Smith, Respondents

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court reversed the trial court and Court of Civil Appeals, holding that in medical malpractice cases where a physician leaves a foreign object in a patient’s body, the cause of action accrues when the patient discovers or should have discovered the object, thereby adopting a discovery rule and overruling Carrell v. Denton and Stewart v. Janes. The decision was contested by two dissenting opinions that argued the statute of limitations should run from the time of the negligent act.