8.01-243 - Personal action for injury to person or property generally; extension in actions for malpractice against health care provider.
§ 8.01-243. Personal action for injury to person or property generally;extension in actions for malpractice against health care provider.
A. Unless otherwise provided in this section or by other statute, everyaction for personal injuries, whatever the theory of recovery, and everyaction for damages resulting from fraud, shall be brought within two yearsafter the cause of action accrues.
B. Every action for injury to property, including actions by a parent orguardian of an infant against a tort-feasor for expenses of curing orattempting to cure such infant from the result of a personal injury or lossof services of such infant, shall be brought within five years after thecause of action accrues.
C. The two-year limitations period specified in subsection A shall beextended in actions for malpractice against a health care provider as follows:
1. In cases arising out of a foreign object having no therapeutic ordiagnostic effect being left in a patient's body, for a period of one yearfrom the date the object is discovered or reasonably should have beendiscovered;
2. In cases in which fraud, concealment or intentional misrepresentationprevented discovery of the injury within the two-year period, for one yearfrom the date the injury is discovered or, by the exercise of due diligence,reasonably should have been discovered; and
3. In a claim for the negligent failure to diagnose a malignant tumor orcancer, for a period of one year from the date the diagnosis of a malignanttumor or cancer is communicated to the patient by a health care provider,provided the health care provider's underlying act or omission was on orafter July 1, 2008. Claims under this section for the negligent failure todiagnose a malignant tumor or cancer, where the health care provider'sunderlying act or omission occurred prior to July 1, 2008, shall be governedby the statute of limitations that existed prior to July 1, 2008.
However, the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to extend thelimitations period beyond ten years from the date the cause of actionaccrues, except that the provisions of § 8.01-229 A 2 shall apply to toll thestatute of limitations in actions brought by or on behalf of a person under adisability.
(Code 1950, § 8-24; 1954, c. 589; 1973, c. 385; 1977, c. 617; 1986, cc. 389,454; 1987, cc. 294, 645, 679; 2008, c. 175.)