We begin by addressing the first certified question, whether the appellants owed a duty to Molloy regarding the genetic testing and diagnosis of S.F. for Fragile X syndrome.
We next consider whether Molloy's action is barred by the statute of limitations for medical malpractice actions.
The final certified question concerns whether Minn.Stat. § 145.424 prohibits Molloy's cause of action. The statute provides in pertinent part:
In 1922, Retha Martin married Tony Flam of Muskogee. She was 16; he was 21. L.E. Martin, Retha’s father, and Ruel Martin, Retha’s brother, and Herbert Riead, the head bookkeeper, had changed their minds about staying in Oklahoma and decided to join the Dunlap family in Pasadena. Ruel’s wife, Veda, and Herbert’s wife, Ada, were homesick for their mother, Mrs. Hilliard (Julia) Dunlap, who had moved to California with the Dunlap brothers after the death of her husband in 1921, so they persuaded Ruel and Herbert to move to California, along with L.E. Martin and his wife Myrtle. Clyde Dunlap had started a group of stores in Southern California, and the three men would help run them. L.E. moved in April, and Ruel, who was best man in Retha’s wedding to Tony, waited until after the wedding in June to leave. Ruel’s wife, Veda, whose heart had been weak since her bout with rheumatic fever as a child, became ill on the train journey west, and Ruel had to carry her from the train to her brother’s home, where she died two weeks later.
1939 – 1941, Odessa, TX, Downtown, Martin’s. Martin’s was a group of small stores scattered across West Texas, unrelated to the Retha Martin family. Many of the stores were only open in the fall, catering to migrant workers. Dunlaps carried brand name merchandise and Martin’s carried lower priced goods.
The Dunlap Company opened or acquired 251 locations, operated in a total of 18 states, and employed thousands of people during its 117-year history. The stores were vital parts of their communities, providing goods, services and employment, and contributing to charitable organizations. Following is a list of store locations in order of the year the store was opened or acquired. Also included is the year the store was closed or sold, the city and state, the name of the store, and additional information about the location, if any. Between the store location listings are notes and anecdotes related to that general time period as well. Some of this information may be flawed due to errors in record-keeping, lapses of memory, and poor transcriptions of oral histories.
The Dunlap Company was founded in 1890 by H.G. Dunlap, in Wagoner, Indian Territory, during the Land Rush days. Dunlap had actually begun offering merchandise for sale out of a covered wagon, which he drove regularly into Indian Territory from neighboring Arkansas, starting as early as 1880. He painted a blue star on the side of the wagon canvas to identify himself. When he and his business partner, Hervy Taylor, started their first store, in Wagoner, they painted a blue star on the front of the store as well, and the store was known for a time as “The Star Store”, then later as Dunlap & Taylor, then after Taylor left the partnership, simply as Dunlaps. Dunlaps was a general merchandise store, selling on credit to Native Americans as well as to the farmers who leased land from them. In the early 1900s, the federal government cancelled all such leases, and Dunlap was unable to collect on his accounts, so he closed his store and consolidated his operation with that of his three sons, Carl, Clyde and Ira, in nearby Coweta.
A fire damaged the building while workers were removing safe deposit boxes from the bank’s vault. A cause was never determined, but a spark from a cutting torch may have started the blaze. The store was never opened, and the building was later sold to New Quest Properties of Houston.
1938 – 1942, Borger, TX, Dun laps. The store offered credit. Retha told a story that Borger had grown too fast for its jail, so police would handcuff the Saturday night rowdies to a rail that was set up down the middle of the street, similar to an old western horse-rail.
The stores in Altus, Frederick, Idabel and Muskogee, were all added on August 18, 1933 . The Idabel store was purchased from Morris Wiesenfeld, an old acquaintance, who wanted to retire and to return to Germany for a visit. Two weeks after selling his store, he called “Rita” (Retha) and asked him if he would take care of his money for him while he was gone, since he didn’t trust the banks. The country was still reeling from the effects of 1929. The amount he wanted “Rita” to look after was $40,000. The payable was carried on the books for many years as “Special Capital”, until it was repaid.