Corkill v. Knowles

• Decision Date: 23 March 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-281,96-281
• Citation: 955 P.2d 438
• Parties: Debora Eileen CORKILL, Petitioner, v. Clark Tyler KNOWLES, as Personal Representative for the Estate of Lynn Rae Knowles, Deceased, Respondent.
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 438

955 P.2d 438

Debora Eileen CORKILL, Petitioner, v. Clark Tyler KNOWLES, as Personal Representative for the Estate of Lynn Rae Knowles, Deceased, Respondent.

No. 96-281.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

March 23, 1998

John C. Brooks of Brooks, Henley & Drell, P.C., Casper, for Petitioner.

Kathleen J. Doyle, Judith Studer and Cameron S. Walker of Schwartz, Bon, Walker & Studer, LLC, Casper, for Respondent.

Before TAYLOR, C.J., and THOMAS, MACY, GOLDEN and LEHMAN, JJ.

GOLDEN, Justice.

Debora Eileen Corkill (Corkill) petitions for interlocutory review of an order denying her motion to dismiss the wrongful death action brought against her by the personal representative for the estate of Lynn Rae Knowles. Corkill's motion to dismiss asserted that the action was time-barred pursuant to the applicable statute of limitations. The district court held that the "discovery rule" applies to Wyoming's Wrongful Death Act and the action was filed within the statutory time frame.

Determining that the Wrongful Death Act, when read as a whole, is ambiguous and could lead to an absurd result when applied to the unusual facts of this case, we hold that a personal representative may bring a wrongful death action within two years of the date on which the decedent is identified so the court may appoint a personal representative. Therefore, although we do not agree that the discovery rule applies to the limitation period found in the Wrongful Death Act, we affirm the district court's denial of the motion to dismiss on other grounds.

ISSUE

Petitioner Corkill presents the following issue in her brief:

Whether the "discovery rule" ¹ may toll the running of Wyoming's Wrongful Death Statute of Limitations for nearly sixteen years?

Clark Tyler Knowles (Knowles), the personal representative for the estate of Lynn Rae Knowles (the decedent), presents the issue for our review as:

Whether the statute of limitations under Wyoming's Wrongful Death Act is tolled until a family member receives notice of the death, when the fact of death was not reasonably discoverable within a two-year period despite the exercise of due diligence?

FACTS

In the early morning hours of November 2, 1980, Corkill struck and killed Lynn Rae Knowles (the decedent) with her vehicle. Corkill fled the scene of the accident without rendering aid or reporting the incident to authorities. Investigators and police officers were able to locate Corkill because pieces of her vehicle's grill were left on the highway when she struck the decedent. Corkill was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident involving injury or death. At the time of the accident, Corkill was intoxicated and unable to safely operate a motor vehicle.

Authorities were unable to identify the decedent after the accident. Her purse and wallet were missing, and she carried no identification. For the next fourteen years the decedent's family did not know what had happened to her. Her two children thought she had abandoned them. Knowles hired a private investigator to find his daughter, but to no avail. Fourteen years later, after making further inquiries, investigating dental records, and exhuming the body, authorities were finally able to identify the decedent and contact her family. On March 6, 1995, Knowles reviewed police photographs of the decedent's body, read a note found on her body, and identified the body as that of his daughter.

The decedent was a resident of Iowa City, Iowa, at the time she was killed in Wyoming. Knowles is the decedent's father and the qualified personal representative of the decedent's estate. Knowles, as the personal representative for the decedent, filed this wrongful death action on July 3, 1996, more than fifteen years after the decedent's death, but less than two years after her body was identified. In her answer and motion to dismiss, Corkill sought dismissal of the complaint, claiming the wrongful death action is barred by the applicable statute of limitation found in WYO. STAT. § 1-38-102(d).

Holding that the discovery rule applies to Wyoming's wrongful death statute, the district court denied Corkill's motion to dismiss because Knowles did not know or have reason to know he had a claim until less than two years before the case was filed. Corkill petitioned this Court for a writ of review, which we granted.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Corkill has petitioned this Court for a writ of review pursuant to WYO. R.APP. P. 13. Rule 13 permits appellate review of interlocutory orders involving a controlling question of law, the resolution of which may materially advance resolution of the litigation. WYO. R.APP. P. 13.02. The interlocutory order in the case at bar denied a motion to dismiss based on the district court's interpretation of Wyoming's Wrongful Death Act. Statutory interpretation is a question of law and is reviewed de novo. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. State Bd. of Equalization, 918 P.2d 980, 983 (Wyo.1996). We review an order pertaining to a motion to dismiss accepting the facts alleged in the plaintiff's complaint as true. See Stalkup v. State Dept. of Environmental Quality, 838 P.2d 705, 709 n. 3 (Wyo.1992).

DISCUSSION

The Arguments

In her motion to dismiss, Corkill asserted that the statute of limitation expired two years after the death of the decedent. A complaint filed after expiration of the statute of limitation is barred. Shubert v. Dexter, 891 P.2d 55, 56 (Wyo.1995). The running of the statute of limitation is an affirmative defense which can be pled in a motion to dismiss under WYO. R. CIV. P. 12(b)(6). See WYO. R. CIV. P. 8(c) and 12(b)(6); and In re Estate of Sullivan, 506 P.2d 813, 817 (Wyo.1973). Corkill's memorandum of law supporting her motion to dismiss asserted that the discovery rule is not applied to wrongful death claims in the majority of jurisdictions where the language of the statute requires bringing of the action within a specified period of time after the decedent's death.

Knowles asks this Court to affirm the district court's determination that the discovery rule applies to Wyoming's wrongful death statute. Since Knowles did not discover the decedent's death until March 6, 1995, application of the discovery rule would toll the limitation period found in the Wrongful Death Act until that date. In support of his position, Knowles argues for liberal construction of the statute in support of its remedial purpose. He then directs us to discovery rule jurisprudence in Wyoming and to other jurisdictions' application of the discovery rule to wrongful death cases.

The Wrongful Death Act

Wyoming's Wrongful Death Act, found in WYO. STAT. §§ 1-38-101 and -102 (1997), provides:

§ 1-38-101. Actions for wrongful death which survive; proceedings against executor or administrator of person liable.

Whenever the death of a person is caused by wrongful act, neglect or default such as would have entitled the party injured to maintain an action to recover damages if death had not ensued, the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued is liable in an action for damages, even though the death was caused under circumstances as amount in law to murder of the first or second degree or manslaughter. If the person liable dies, the action may be brought against the executor or administrator of his estate. If he left no estate within the state of Wyoming, the Court may appoint an administrator upon application.

§ 1-38-102. Action to be brought by personal representative; recovery exempt from debts; measure and element of damages; limitation of action.

(a) Every such action shall be brought by and in the name of the personal representative of the deceased person.

(b) If the deceased left a husband, wife, child, father or mother, no debt of the deceased may be satisfied out of the proceeds of any judgment obtained in any action brought under the provisions of this section.

(c) The court or jury, as the case may be, in every such action may award such damages, pecuniary and exemplary, as shall be deemed fair and just. Every person for whose benefit such action is brought may prove his respective damages, and the court or jury may award such person that amount of damages to which it considers such person entitled, including damages for loss of probable future companionship, society and comfort.

(d) Every such action shall be commenced within two (2) years after the death of the deceased person.

The purpose of the Wrongful Death Act, "commonly known as Lord Campbell's Act, was to prescribe limitations and a remedy for a cause of action which did not exist at common law, for at common law the cause of action died with the death of the claimant." Gengo v. Mardis, 103 Neb. 164, 170 N.W. 841 (1919). Wyoming adopted the wrongful death act in 1871. Coliseum Motor Co. v. Hester, 43 Wyo. 298, 305, 3 P.2d 105, 106 (1931). The act was similar to Lord Campbell's Act and was almost an exact copy of West Virginia's wrongful death law. Id. "In the wrongful death statute, the Wyoming legislature has expressed a social policy that favors compensation to ameliorate the certain damage to relational interests resulting from the death of a family member." Nulle v. Gillette-Campbell County Joint Powers Fire Bd., 797 P.2d 1171, 1175 (Wyo.1990).

"The foundation of the action is the wrongful act of the defendant which resulted in death. No remedy existed at common law. The statute was intended to make a change." Coliseum Motor, 43 Wyo. at 307, 3 P.2d at 107. Corkill asserts that the statute must be strictly construed because it is in derogation of the common law. However, "derogation" is defined as "[t]he partial repeal or abolishing of a law, as by a subsequent act which limits its scope or impairs its utility and force." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 399 (5th ed.1979).

Wrongful death acts do not take away any common law right; they were designed to mend the fabric of the common law, not to weaken it. Remedial acts are not strictly construed although they do change a...