Barber v. Superior Court

In Barber v. Superior Court (1991) 234 Cal. App. 3d 1076, the plaintiff was on notice that the defendant committed malpractice when he diagnosed the plaintiff's wife with the flu, and sent her home. The next day, the wife was admitted to the emergency room and operated on for a perforated appendix. The court rejected the plaintiff's claim that the statute of limitations was tolled because the surgeon who operated on his wife refused to act as an expert witness for the plaintiff. The court found that "the concept of 'fraudulent concealment' cannot be stretched to encompass a nonparty and expert witness's refusal voluntarily to give counsel his opinion on a party's conduct." (Id. at p. 1083.)