Improper Dismissal – Untimely Filing

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Civil

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: POSNER, ROVNER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges

Improper Dismissal – Untimely Filing

No.14-3426 William Nally v. Parthasarathi Ghosh

Circuit court dismissal of prisoner’s suit rooted in improper conduct by prison medical staff as untimely was inappropriate given delays beyond prisoner’s control.

“The defendant now knows that he was diabetic or prediabetic in 2007, but there is no indication that he learned this until November 2010. True, he alleges that in 2009 his eyesight began to deteriorate rapidly and he suffered excruciating leg cramps and numbness in his left foot—all of which are possible symptoms of diabetes. Michael Dansinger, “High Blood Sugar, Diabetes, and Your Body,” WebMD (September 3, 2014), www.webmd.com/diabetes/how-sugaraffects-diabetes?page=2. Yet he may not have known that these were possible symptoms of diabetes—or indeed that he was diabetic or prediabetic, for the symptoms first occurred in 2009 and as far as appears it was not until November 2010 that he learned that the defendants’ failure to take any action in response to his abnormal glucose blood counts was the cause, or a likely cause, of the symptoms. The statute of limitations in federal tort suits starts to run when a person knows that he is injured and knows what caused his injury. United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 117–25 (1979). “Knowledge of the injury and its cause should stimulate inquiry,” as we said in Drazan v. United States, 762 F.2d 56, 58 (7th Cir. 1985) (emphasis added). Nally may not have known of the cause of his distressing symptoms until November 2010, and the two-year statute of limitations would have been tolled during the interval between that discovery and his filing suit because he was exhausting prison administrative remedies as a prelude to suing. “

Reversed and Remanded

Hamilton concurring

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