# Johnson v. St. Patrick's Hospital

> Montana Supreme Court · August 8, 1966 · 148 Mont. 125

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9558632

## Case

- **Full name:** BROR v. JOHNSON, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. ST. PATRICK’S HOSPITAL and STEPHEN L. ODGERS, Defendants and Respondents
- **Court:** Montana Supreme Court
- **Decided:** August 8, 1966
- **Citations:** 148 Mont. 125; 417 P.2d 469; 1966 Mont. LEXIS 297
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Castles
- **Judges:** Harrison, Castles, Doyle, Adair
- **Cited by:** 53 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9558632

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that, when a surgeon negligently leaves a foreign object in a patient’s body, the statute of limitations is tolled “until the patient learns of, or in exercise of reasonable care and diligence should have learned of the presence of such foreign object in his body”

## Opinion text

MR. JUSTICE CASTLES:
In concur in the result only. I would not make a long effort to confuse Coady v. Reins, 1 Mont. 424 . It simply was not a foreign or hidden object case, and there the claim for relief had accrued at the time of the negligent act. Here, so far as the record discloses, and for the purpose of summary judgment, no claim for relief existed until the foreign object, the sponge, began to cause trouble and damage. Upon trial of the issues, what the medical proof will show, either as to whether any negligence existed, or as to when a claim for relief accrued, remains to be seen.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9558632. Public record. Not legal advice.