Hughes v. Smith

Citation264 F. Supp. 767
Decision Date08 March 1967
Docket NumberCiv. No. 1174-66.
PartiesAlbert C. HUGHES, Plaintiff, v. Howard SMITH and Robert Tatum, Policemen in and for the City of Camden, New Jersey, Defendants.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 3th Circuit. United States District Courts. 3th Circuit. District of New Jersey

Albert C. Hughes, pro se.

Joseph M. Nardi, Jr., City Atty., for the City of Camden, Camden, N. J., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM ON DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS COMPLAINT

COHEN, District Judge:

The motion of the defendants, presented by the City Attorney for the City of Camden, New Jersey, seeks an order dismissing the complaint of the plaintiff, which action plaintiff commenced under the Federal Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, on the basis that it is barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

A consideration of the nature of the action is essential in order to ascertain whether it properly sounds within the Civil Rights Act, as well as to determine what statute of limitations, if any, may bar the present proceeding. The plaintiff invokes the jurisdiction of this Court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which provides:

"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress."

The complaint, in its pertinent parts, alleges that plaintiff, while in the custody of the Camden City Police Department, was brutally beaten by the defendant policemen, on April 26, 1963; that defendant Smith needlessly and viciously shot him twice, once in the leg and once in the back. The complaint seeks money damages for personal injuries and for violation of his constitutional and statutory civil rights.

Defendants have filed answer admitting the timely events, but denying the characterizations and legal effects ascribed to their official conduct. The thrust of their present motion is that plaintiff's cause of action is barred by the New Jersey Statute of Limitations, in that the action was not commenced within 2 years of the accrual of the alleged cause of action. N.J.S. 2A:14-2, N.J. S.A.

Plaintiff counters, by invoking N.J.S. 2A:67-11, N.J.S.A., and citing Gordon v. Garrison, 77 F.Supp. 477 (E.D.Ill. 1948), contending that a 2 year limitation for suit, if any, may be brought within 2 years after his discharge from prison, he having been in custody continuously since his arrest, to the present time. Alternately, he relies upon N.J.S. 2A:14-1, N.J.S.A., a 6 year statute, for actions not covered by N.J.S. 2A:14-2 and 3, N.J.S.A.

The sole issue before this Court is strictly a legal one. At the outset, it must be noted that there is no Federal Statute of Limitations applicable to damage actions brought under the Federal Civil Rights Act. See: Annotations 24 A.L.R.2d 618, and 98 A.L.R. 1160. Over a half century ago, the Supreme Court of the United States in ruling upon predecessor statutes to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 held that limitation statutes of the state in which the cause of action arose were controlling. O'Sullivan v. Felix, 233 U.S. 318, 34 S.Ct. 596, 58 L.Ed. 980 (1914). As recently as 1963, Judge Freedman, now a member of the Court of Appeals for our Circuit, writing for the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in the case of Conrad v. Stitzel, 225 F.Supp. 244, disposed of a matter similar to the present one. The only difference there was that the cause of action arose in Pennsylvania, and the 2 year Statute of Limitations in Pennsylvania was imposed to bar the complaint. The case is fully analogous, and limps, as do most analogies, only in that it applied Pennsylvania, rather than New Jersey, law. He held further, that plaintiff's imprisonment during all or any part of the two year period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint did not toll the running of the applicable limitation statute, as no exception for disability to sue because of imprisonment was provided by the Legislature to toll the statute.

Similarly in New Jersey, where the present action is alleged to have accrued, the statutory disabilities in New Jersey which will toll its limitation statutes are expressly confined to legal infancy and legal insanity or incompetence.1 So that, the New Jersey Statute of Limitations applicable in this case is set forth in N.J.S. 2A:14-2, N.J.S.A., which provides:

"Every action at law for an injury to the person caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of any person within this state shall be commenced within 2 years next after the cause of any such action shall have accrued."

The claim asserted by plaintiff is within the Civil Rights Act, referred to earlier, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, but is barred by the New Jersey 2 year Statute of Limitations, which state statute is incorporated into the Civil Rights Act by reference. For Section 1988 of Title 42, United States Code, provides that the laws of the United States shall provide for the protection and vindication of civil and criminal rights of persons, where so adapted for the purposes of the Act; but where not so adapted, then resort must be had to the common law of the forum state, as modified by constitution and statute, insofar as not inconsistent with the...

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20 cases
  • Page v. Curtiss-Wright Corporation
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey
    • October 18, 1971
    ...statute.7 This is said by defendant to be the New Jersey two-year statute of limitations (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2), citing Hughes v. Smith, 264 F.Supp. 767 (D.N.J.1967), aff'd. per curiam, 389 F.2d 42 (3 Cir. 1968), which applied the two-year New Jersey personal injury statute of limitations (N.J.......
  • Baker v. F & F INVESTMENT
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit
    • March 5, 1970
    ...the nature of Section 1988 are well considered, the decisions do not necessarily depend upon that statute. 8 Compare Hughes v. Smith, 264 F.Supp. 767, 769 (D.N.J.1967), where Section 1988 was itself employed as the basis for the application of the state's statute of limitations to bar an ac......
  • Ammlung v. City of Chester, Civ. A. No. 72-868.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania
    • March 14, 1973
    ...looked to state law to determine whether the applicable state statute of limitations was tolled in a civil rights action. Hughes v. Smith, 264 F.Supp. 767 (D.N.J.1967), aff'd. 389 F. 2d 42 (3rd Cir. 1968); Conard v. Stitzel, 225 F.Supp. 244 (E.D.Pa.1963). In both Hughes and Conard, state pr......
  • Duncan v. Nelson
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit
    • October 10, 1972
    ...has been tolled in a federal action is a matter governed by state law. Jones v. Bombeck, 375 F.2d 737 (3d Cir. 1967); Hughes v. Smith, 264 F.Supp. 767 (D. N.J.1967), aff'd, 389 F.2d 42 (3d Cir. 1967); Gordon v. Garrison, 77 F.Supp. 477 (E.D.Ill.1948). Illinois law provides that either of th......
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