Anderson v. Wood, 2017-0559

• Decision Date: 28 November 2018
• Docket Number: No. 2017-0559,2017-0559
• Citation: 198 A.3d 926,171 N.H. 524
• Parties: Monica ANDERSON v. ESTATE OF Mary D. WOOD
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

171 N.H. 524

198 A.3d 926

Monica ANDERSON

v.ESTATE OF Mary D. WOOD

No. 2017-0559

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

Argued: September 13, 2018

Opinion Issued: November 28, 2018

Leahy & Leahy, PLLC, of Penacook (Linda B. Sullivan Leahy on the brief and orally), for the plaintiff.

O'Shaughnessy, Walker & Buchholz, P.A., of Manchester (James G. Walker on the brief and orally), for the defendant.

HICKS, J.

The plaintiff, Monica Anderson, appeals a decision of the Superior Court (O'Neill, J.) dismissing her personal injury action against the defendant, the Estate of Mary D. Wood, as time-barred by RSA 508:4 (2010). We reverse and remand.

The following facts are taken from the trial court's orders; the procedural history is taken from the record before us. On April 5, 2013, the plaintiff was involved in a motor vehicle accident with a vehicle driven by Mary D. Wood (Wood). The plaintiff commenced suit by complaint dated March 25, 2016, alleging that Wood had caused her injury by negligently rear-ending her vehicle. The complaint was mistakenly served on Wood's daughter, who was also named Mary D. Wood. The daughter moved to dismiss on the grounds that Wood had passed away on January 22, 2015, and the plaintiff had no cause of action against the daughter, who was neither the administrator of Wood's estate nor had any legal relationship with, or legal duty to, the plaintiff.

On April 29, 2016, the plaintiff moved to amend her complaint to substitute the Estate of Mary D. Wood for Mary D. Wood as the defendant. The plaintiff's motion alleged that she had filed a petition for estate administration for the Estate of Mary D. Wood and that she would serve notice of the action on the estate once the circuit court ruled on that petition.

On June 30, 2016, the trial court dismissed the action, ruling, sua sponte, that it did not have subject matter jurisdiction. The court noted the plaintiff's concession that she had filed the action against the wrong defendant, but concluded that it could not grant her motion to amend because there was "nothing in the record to suggest ... that an Estate of Mary D. Wood presently exists." The parties did not dispute that Wood died intestate and no estate had been opened immediately following her death. The court acknowledged the plaintiff's allegation that she had sought to open an estate, but noted that the plaintiff had not provided "any documentation demonstrating that the [circuit court] ever issued a grant of administration of said estate." Accordingly, the court dismissed the action, ruling that "there is presently no legal entity that can be properly substituted for the current defendant such that this Court would possess subject matter jurisdiction over this action pursuant to RSA 556:7." See RSA 556:7 (2007).

In August 2016, a certificate of appointment was issued, naming an administrator of the Estate of Mary D. Wood. The plaintiff filed her complaint in the instant action on April 4, 2017. The defendant moved to dismiss, arguing that the statute of limitations had run on the claim.

The trial court granted the motion to dismiss. The court ruled that because the action "is one for personal injury, and it was not pending until after [Wood's] death[,] ... said action falls within the purview of RSA 556:11, and is thus subject to the limitations of RSA 508:4." See RSA 508:4 ; RSA 556:11 (2007). The court further ruled:

It is undisputed that the accident giving rise to the present cause of action occurred on April 5, 2013. Therefore, in order to satisfy the three-year statute of limitations period set forth in RSA 508:4, the plaintiff was required to file the present action by April 5, 2016. Because the present action was filed April 4, 2017, nearly one year after the three-year statute of limitations had run, the Court finds that the plaintiff's claim is time-barred by RSA 508:4.

This appeal followed.

We first set forth our standard of review.

In reviewing a trial court's ruling on a motion to dismiss, we generally consider whether the [plaintiff's] allegations are reasonably susceptible of a construction that would permit recovery. The [defendant], however, moved to dismiss based exclusively upon the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense and the [defendant] bear[s] the burden of proving that it applies.

State v. Lake Winnipesaukee Resort, 159 N.H. 42, 45, 977 A.2d 472 (2009) (citations omitted). As there was no dispute regarding the dates on which the cause of action accrued and on which suit was brought, the trial court's conclusion that the statute of limitations had run is a ruling of law. Accordingly, our review is de novo. Id.

On appeal, the plaintiff argues, among other things, that the trial court misapplied RSA 556:11 in dismissing her complaint. That statute provides: "If an action is not then pending, one may be brought for such cause at any time within 6 years after the death of the deceased party, subject to the provisions of RSA 508." RSA 556:11. Citing Coffey v. Bresnahan, 127 N.H. 687, 506 A.2d 310 (1986), the plaintiff asserts that because her claim was not time-barred by RSA 508:4 at the time of Wood's death, RSA 556:11 allows her six years from the date of Wood's death to commence her action. She contends that her suit filed on April 4, 2017 was timely because: (1) at the time of Wood's death on January 22, 2015, three years had not passed since the accrual of her cause of action on April 5, 2013; and (2) at the time her complaint was filed on April 4, 2017, six years had not passed since Wood's death on January 22, 2015.

The defendant, on the other hand, argues that in Cheever v. Southern New Hampshire Regional Medical Center, 141 N.H. 589, 688 A.2d 565 (1997), we interpreted RSA 556:11 "as being subservient to the general statute of limitations contained in RSA 508:4." The defendant contends that the issue presented here was decided in Cheever, and that the three-year statute of limitations in RSA 508:4 controls. Thus, according to the defendant, the statute expired on April 5, 2016 — three years after the cause of action accrued.

The parties' arguments require us to interpret both our prior case law and the applicable statutory provisions.

In matters of statutory interpretation, we are the final arbiter of legislative intent as expressed in the words of the statute considered as a whole. We first examine the language of the statute and ascribe the plain and ordinary meanings to the words used. We interpret legislative intent from the statute as written and will not consider what the legislature might have said or add language that the legislature did not see fit to include. Unless we find statutory language to be ambiguous, we will not examine legislative history.

Balise v. Balise, 170 N.H. 521, 524, 177 A.3d 747 (2017) (citations omitted). We review the trial court's interpretation of statutes de novo. Id.

In Coffey, we applied a prior version of RSA 556:11, which provided: "If an action is not then pending, and has not already become barred by the statute of limitations, one may be brought for such cause at any time within two years after the death of the deceased party, and not afterwards." RSA 556:11 (1974) (amended 1983); see Coffey, 127 N.H. at 690, 506 A.2d 310. In light of our holding in Gould v. Concord Hospital, 126 N.H. 405, 493 A.2d 1193 (1985), that "the classification created by RSA 556:11 violated the equal protection clause of the New Hampshire Constitution," we did not apply the statute as written. Coffey, 127 N.H. at 690, 506 A.2d 310. Instead, we "conclude[d] that the statute [was] constitutional when a six-year limitations period is substituted for the unconstitutional two-year limitation." Id. Under that construction, the plaintiff's action, commenced in 1984 against a defendant who had died in 1979, "was timely under the six-year limitations period." Id. at 691, 506 A.2d 310.

That conclusion, we noted, "d[id] not end the matter, ... for there is an additional requirement in RSA 556:11 ; that is, the suit must not have already become barred by the statute of limitations in RSA 508:4." Id. at 691-92, 506 A.2d 310. On that issue, we found our decision in Perutsakos v. Tarmey, 107 N.H. 51, 217 A.2d 177 (1966), controlling. Coffey, 127 N.H. at 692, 506 A.2d 310. In that case, we held:

We think that the words of [ RSA 556:11 ], "has not already become barred" mean an action which has not become barred at the time of the death of the deceased party.

In other words section 11 permits suits within a designated period after the decedent's death on all claims not already barred at the time of such death by the general statute of limitations.

Perutsakos, 107 N.H. at 53, 217 A.2d 177 (quoting RSA 556:11) (citation omitted). The acts of alleged medical malpractice giving rise to the suit in Coffey had occurred in 1978. Coffey, 127 N.H. at 689, 506 A.2d 310. Thus, given our holding in Perutsakos, we concluded that the suit in Coffey "was clearly not barred at the time of [the defendant's] death and, thus, the second requirement of RSA 556:11 has been satisfied." Id. at 692, 506 A.2d 310.

In 1983, the legislature amended RSA 556:11 to its present form. The plaintiff implicitly contends that this amendment did not abrogate our decisions in Coffey and Perutsakos, as she asserts that she satisfied RSA 556:11's requirement that her claim must not have been barred by RSA 508:4 at the time of Wood's death. We agree.

We have long held that when the legislature amends a statute, it "is presumed to [be] cognizant of the interpretation put upon the statute by the court." Waterman v. Lebanon, 78 N.H. 23, 24, 95 A. 657 (1915). It is further presumed "to have adopted that construction, in the absence of any change in the phraseology used or other competent evidence of a different purpose." Id. On the other hand, we have also noted that "any material change in the language of" a statute by amendment is "[o]rdinarily ... presumed to...