High v. Broadnax, 774

• Decision Date: 25 August 1967
• Docket Number: No. 774,774
• Citation: 271 N.C. 313,156 S.E.2d 282
• Parties: Major S. HIGH, Administrator of the Estate of Phillip D. Watkins, Deceased, v. Louis Anderson BROADNAX and Joe Willie Williams.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 282

156 S.E.2d 282

271 N.C. 313

Major S. HIGH, Administrator of the Estate of Phillip D Watkins, Deceased, v. Louis Anderson BROADNAX and Joe Willie Williams.

No. 774.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Aug. 25, 1967.

Lee, High, Taylor & Dansby, Greensboro, J. L. Williams, Elkin, for plaintiff appellant.

Smith, Moore, Smith, Schell & Hunter by Richmond G. Bernhardt, Jr., Greensboro, for defendant appellees.

SHARP, Justice.

The period prescribed for the commencement of an action for wrongful death under G.S. § 20--173 is two years. G.S. § 1--53(4). Intestate was killed in North Carolina on 21 April 1963. The first action to recover damages for his death was instituted against defendants by his Virginia administrator in the United States District Court of the Western District of Virginia on 13 April 1964--less than one year after his death. That case was nonsuited on 2 July 1965, and this action was brought on 13 July 1965--more than two years after intestate's death, but less than one year after the judgment of nonsuit in the Federal Court in Virginia. In pertinent part, G.S. § 1--25 provides that if an action is commenced within the time prescribed therefor, and plaintiff is nonsuited, he or his representative may begin a new action within one year after such nonsuit if he has paid costs of the original action before the commencement of the new suit.

Plaintiff contends that, since he instituted this action within one year following the nonsuit in the U.S. District Court in Virginia, G.S. § 1--25 repels defendants' plea of the statute of limitations. This appeal, therefore, presents the question whether G.S. § 1--25 prevents the bar of the statute of limitations where an action is brought in this State within one year after a judgment of nonsuit has been entered in the original action which was instituted in another jurisdiction.

Since this cause of action arose in North Carolina, we are concerned only with the statutes of this State. 'Where the action is regarded as controlled by the statute of limitations of the forum, it has usually been held that a plaintiff invoking the saving statute of the forum may not rely upon a nonsuit in an earlier action brought in another state.' Annot., Statute permitting new action, after failure of original action timely commenced, as applicable where original action was filed in another state, 55 A.L.R.2d 1038, 1039 (1957); accord, C & L Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. v. Kincade, 175 F.Supp. 223 (N.D.Miss., 1959); Sorensen v. Overland Corporation, 142 F.Supp. 354 (D.C.Del., 1956); Scurlock Oil Co. v. Three States Contracting Co., 272 F.2d 169 (5th Cir., 1959); 54 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions §§ 288c, 299 (1948). See Milliken v. O'Meara, 74 Colo. 475, 222 P. 1116.

In Riley v. Union Pac. R. Co., 182 F.2d 765 (10th Cir., 1950); it was held that a Wyoming statute permitting a new action to be commenced within one year after the original action (which had been commenced in due time) had failed otherwise than upon the merits, did not apply to a prior action brought in another state. In construing the Tennessee nonsuit or saving statute, which is substantially the same as Wyoming's, in Sigler v. Youngblood Trust Lines, 149 F.Supp. 61 (E.D.Tenn., 1957), the court held that the statute did not apply to suits instituted in North Carolina and that our G.S. § 1--25 had no extraterritorial effect.

In Morris v. Wise, 293 P.2d 547, 55 A.L.R.2d 1033 (Okl.1956), the Supreme Court of Oklahoma held that its nonsuit statute did not permit the renewal of a case in the State court after a dismissal in the United States District Court (Houston, Texas). In Anderson v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, 108 Ga.App. 314, 132 S.E.2d 820, the same result was reached with reference to the Georgia nonsuit statute.

We adhere to the general rule that a statute of the forum which permits a suit to be reinstituted within a specified time after dismissal of the original action otherwise than upon its merits has no application When the original suit was brought in another jurisdiction. This rule, however, has no application to an action which was originally instituted in the Superior Court of this State and was thereafter transferred to a United States District Court, where it was later terminated by a nonsuit, or 'dismissed without prejudice.' In Brooks v. Suncrest Lumber Co., 194 N.C. 141, 138 S.E. 532, plaintiff's intestate died 20 November 1923 as a result of defendant's negligence. Suit for wrongful death was instituted in Macon County on 3 March 1924. Upon defendant's petition, the action was removed to the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for trial. On 3 August 1925, plaintiff took a voluntary nonsuit and, on 8 September 1925, reinstituted the action in the Superior Court of Macon County for damages low enough to prevent a second removal. At that time, the applicable statute provided that suits for wrongful death must be brought within one year after the death. In the second suit, the plaintiff recovered judgment which, upon appeal, was sustained. The court held:

'(W)here an action has been removed from the State court to the federal court, under the act of Congress providing, for such removal, and a voluntary nonsuit is taken by plaintiff in the action while same is pending in the federal court, he...