Anita T. Owens, and v. Raymond White, John C. McCarter Alfred Popma, and St. Lukes Hospital, a Corporation, And

On October 14, 1963, plaintiff filed her complaint in the district court, seeking to recover judgment against defendants for damages resulting from their alleged malpractice. Jurisdiction was based upon diversity of citizenship of the parties. The court granted defendants’ motions to dismiss plaintiff’s several claims on the ground that, under the governing Idaho law, plaintiff’s right to prosecute them was barred by the statute of limitations. The court did not rule on the part of the defendant doctors’ motion, which attacked the complaint for failing to state “any fact or facts sufficient to grant the relief prayed for * * Plaintiff has appealed.

The sole question presented is whether suit was commenced within two years after plaintiff’s malpractice claim “accrued,” that being the time prescribed by the applicable Idaho statute of limitations for the commencement of such suits. Idaho Code 5-201, 5-219, Par. 4 (1948); Billings v. Sisters of Mercy of Idaho, 86 Idaho 485 , 389 P.2d 224, 225 (1964).

It appears from plaintiff’s complaint that in August, 1951, plaintiff consulted the three defendant doctors concerning a lump in her left breast. Then after a series of examinations,…