Ramirez Morales v. Rosa Viera, 86-1647
Decision Date | 25 March 1987 |
Docket Number | No. 86-1647,86-1647 |
Citation | 815 F.2d 2 |
Parties | Jaime RAMIREZ MORALES, etc., et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Isidoro ROSA VIERA, etc., et al., Defendants, Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Francisco M. Dolz Sanchez, San Juan, P.R., on brief, for plaintiffs, appellants.
Rafael Ortiz Carrion, Sol. Gen., Norma Cotti Cruz, Deputy Sol. Gen., and Reina Colon De Rodriguez, Asst. Sol. Gen., San Juan, P.R., on brief, for defendants, appellees.
Before COFFIN, BOWNES and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 25, 1984, Jose Luis Ramirez Vazquez was shot and killed by Puerto Rico police officer Isadoro Rosa Viera. Fifteen and one-half months later, on July 8, 1985, decedent's father and siblings (plaintiffs) filed civil rights actions against officer Rosa Viera and the current and two former police chiefs of Puerto Rico (defendants) seeking damages for the alleged unconstitutional deprivation of life under color of state authority. 1 Applying the one-year Puerto Rico statute of limitations pertaining to tort actions, P.R.Laws Ann. tit. 31, Sec. 5298(2) (1968), the district court dismissed the complaint as time-barred. 632 F.Supp. 491 (1986). The court recognized that under the Puerto Rico tolling statute, P.R.Laws Ann. tit. 31 Sec. 5303, the statute of limitations may be tolled by a claim letter sent to defendants requesting damages, but held that plaintiffs' letter, postmarked March 27, 1985, was at least one day late.
Plaintiffs subsequently moved to set aside the judgment, arguing that the defendants had fraudulently concealed the existence of plaintiffs' causes of action until December 4, 1984, and that the statute of limitations was therefore tolled until January 22, 1985, when plaintiffs inspected the Commonwealth Department of Justice file and became aware that constitutional violations might have occurred. The district court denied the motion, finding no exceptional circumstances which would have delayed the commencement of the running of the statute of limitations beyond March 26, 1984, the date plaintiffs received notice of decedent's death.
On appeal, plaintiffs do not dispute the settled proposition that the statute of limitations applicable to their civil rights actions brought in federal district court in Puerto Rico is Puerto Rico's one-year statute of limitations governing tort actions. Altair Corp. v. Pesquera de Busquets, 769 F.2d 30, 31-32 (1st Cir.1985). See generally Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985) ( ). Rather, they appeal the district court's ruling that no circumstances justifying equitable tolling were present in the case.
Plaintiffs argue that defendants' fraudulent concealment tolled the statute of limitations. Specifically, plaintiffs claim that defendant Rosa Viera made false statements to police department officials which led plaintiffs to believe that the shooting may have been legally justified. It was only after reviewing the Department of Justice file on January 22, 1985, plaintiffs assert, that they realized officer Rosa Viera's conduct could be found to have been grossly negligent. Plaintiffs also argue that they had no reason to know of gross negligence on the part of the three defendant police chiefs until their inspection of the Department of Justice file uncovered a document suggesting that officer Rosa Viera should have been suspended without pay at the time of the shooting for a prior illegal use of his service revolver. Plaintiffs argue that because defendant Rosa Viera's alleged falsehoods prevented them from filing their civil rights actions within the one-year limitations period, federal equitable law requires that the statute of limitations be tolled.
Though the parties have chosen to argue this case on the basis of the federal equitable tolling doctrine, see Hobson v. Wilson, 737 F.2d 1 (D.C.Cir.1984), the Supreme Court has instructed federal courts to apply state tolling law in civil rights actions unless that law is inconsistent with federal policy underlying the cause of action. Board of Regents v. Tomanio, 446 U.S. 478, 100 S.Ct. 1790, 64 L.Ed.2d 440 (1980). Puerto Rico law provides for equitable tolling in a case of "damage willfully and wrongfully (dolosamente ) concealed by the author of the same." Rivera Encarnacion v. E.L.A., 113 D.P.R. 383, 386 (1982). Since plaintiffs have not argued that Puerto Rico tolling law is inconsistent with the purposes of sections 1983, 1985 or 1986, w...
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