Hook v. Lippolt

• Decision Date: 29 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. 04-1655.,04-1655.
• Parties: Pamela Sue HOOK, Appellee, v. Carl Frederick LIPPOLT and the State of Iowa, Appellants.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

755 N.W.2d 514

Pamela Sue HOOK, Appellee, v. Carl Frederick LIPPOLT and the State of Iowa, Appellants.

No. 04-1655.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

August 29, 2008.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Joanne Moeller and Mark Hunacek, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellants.

Tito Trevino of Trevino Law Offices, Fort Dodge, for appellee.

TERNUS, Chief Justice.

The appellee, Pamela Hook, brought suit for injuries she sustained in an automobile accident caused by appellant Carl Lippolt, who at the time of the accident was working as a volunteer for the Department of Human Services. After dismissing her initial lawsuit against Lippolt, Hook filed the present action against Lippolt and the State under the State Tort Claims Act. See Iowa Code ch. 669 (1999). Both defendants asserted a statute-of-limitations defense, and Lippolt claimed statutory immunity. See id. §§ 669.13, .24. The district court denied motions for summary judgment filed by the defendants, rejecting their argument that the plaintiff failed to file her claim with the state appeal board within the time limits established by the governing statute of limitations and rejecting Lippolt's claim of statutory immunity. On appeal, the defendants assert the district court erred because the plaintiff discovered her cause of action more than two years before filing her administrative claim, and therefore, this suit is barred. The defendants also argue there is no evidence to support the plaintiff's claim the defendants are equitably estopped from relying on the statute-of-limitations defense under the doctrine of fraudulent concealment. Finally, Lippolt contends he enjoys immunity from suit as a matter of law.

Upon our review of the record and the parties' arguments, we conclude there is no genuine issue of material fact with respect to Lippolt's entitlement to immunity, and therefore, his summary judgment motion on the plaintiff's negligence claim should have been granted. With respect to the parties' statute-of-limitations defense, we conclude as a matter of law the plaintiff's claim was untimely and the defendants are not equitably estopped from relying on the statute of limitations as a defense. The district court erred in failing to rule the plaintiff's negligence claim is barred. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's ruling and remand this case for entry of judgment in favor of the defendants on the negligence count of plaintiff's petition.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

On June 9, 2000, Pamela Hook and Carl Lippolt were involved in a car accident when Lippolt entered an intersection on a red light and struck Hook's vehicle. Hook was injured in the accident. Lippolt, who was seventy-eight years old, admitted from the beginning that the collision was his fault. Following the accident, Lippolt's personal automobile insurance carrier settled Hook's property damage claim, but no agreement could be reached on her personal injury claim. Consequently, on March 13, 2002, Hook filed suit against Lippolt.

In July 2002, more than two years after the accident, Hook propounded interrogatories to Lippolt. Lippolt revealed in his answers that, at the time of the accident, he was using his own vehicle to provide transportation services for a client of the Department of Human Services (DHS) as a volunteer for the department.¹ The preparation and service of Lippolt's interrogatory answers was the first time Hook, Hook's attorney, and Lippolt's attorney were aware of these facts. Thereafter, Lippolt was permitted to amend his answer to assert an immunity defense under chapter 669. See id. § 669.24 (providing for immunity from personal liability for persons performing voluntary services for a state agency). Lippolt was also allowed to add an affirmative defense based on Hook's failure to submit her claim to the state appeal board within two years of the accident. See id. § 669.13 (requiring claim against state or state employee be first presented to state appeal board within two years of accrual or be "forever barred"). In July 2003, Hook filed a dismissal without prejudice of her lawsuit against Lippolt. She did not appeal the district court's ruling allowing Lippolt to assert the immunity and statute-of-limitations defenses.

Nearly three years after the accident, on June 3, 2003, Hook filed an administrative claim with the state appeal board seeking compensation for her personal injury. After six months passed with no response from the board, Hook withdrew her claim and commenced the current lawsuit against Lippolt and the State on January 27, 2004. See id. § 669.5 (stating that after six months with no response from the board, claimant may withdraw claim from board's consideration and file suit). Hook made two claims in her petition: (1) a negligence claim against both defendants for the damages she sustained in the June 9, 2000 accident; and (2) a fraudulent misrepresentation claim against Lippolt based on representations he made to the plaintiff from April 8, 2002, to May 21, 2003, in the first lawsuit. With respect to Hook's negligence claim, the defendants asserted a statute-of-limitations defense in their answers. Lippolt also claimed statutory immunity under section 669.24.

Lippolt filed a motion for partial summary judgment, seeking summary judgment on Hook's negligence claim. He asserted his immunity and statute-of-limitations defenses should be decided in his favor as a matter of law. The State subsequently filed its own motion for summary judgment based on the statute of limitations. The plaintiff also filed a motion for partial summary judgment claiming the statute of limitations had been tolled by the discovery rule and asking the court to rule as a matter of law that her administrative claim was timely filed. Although Hook did not contest the fact that Lippolt's "personal assets [were immune] from attachment or execution to satisfy any judgment," she claimed he was a proper defendant for two reasons. Because the State would be required to defend and indemnify Lippolt under section 669.21, Hook reasoned that statute anticipates that even volunteers not personally liable are still proper parties in an action against the State. In addition, Hook asserted Lippolt's personal liability insurance policy was available to satisfy any judgment by virtue of section 669.20,² and therefore, it was necessary to include Lippolt as a defendant.

In ruling on these various motions, the district court concluded as a matter of law that the plaintiff had neither actual nor imputed knowledge of her cause of action more than two years prior to filing her administrative claim. Therefore, the court sustained the plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on the defendants' statute-of-limitations defense and overruled the defendants' summary judgment motions on this issue. With respect to the immunity issue, the district court ruled that Lippolt was not personally liable and section 669.20 did not make Lippolt's insurer liable. Although the court overruled Hook's motion for partial summary judgment on the insurance issue, the court denied, for unexplained reasons, Lippolt's motion for partial summary judgment on his immunity defense. We granted the defendants' application for interlocutory appeal to review the district court's summary judgment rulings.

II. Scope of Review.

Summary judgment rulings are reviewed for correction of errors of law. Hallett Constr. Co. v. Meister, 713 N.W.2d 225, 229 (Iowa 2006). "To obtain a grant of summary judgment on some issue in an action, the moving party must affirmatively establish the existence of undisputed facts entitling that party to a particular result under controlling law." Interstate Power Co. v. Ins. Co. of N. Am., 603 N.W.2d 751, 756 (Iowa 1999).

III. Lippolt's Immunity.

We begin our review by considering the district court's ruling denying Lippolt's motion for partial summary judgment on Hook's negligence claim based on Lippolt's immunity defense under section 669.24.

A. Statutory Provisions. At the time of the events giving rise to this lawsuit, chapter 669 required that "any claim as defined in this chapter" be submitted to the state appeal board for disposition. Iowa Code §§ 669.3, .5. Section 669.2(3) defines "claim" to include "[a]ny claim against an employee of the state for money only ... on account of personal injury or death, caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any state employee while acting within the scope of the employee's office or employment." Id. § 669.2(3)(b). An "employee of the state" is broadly defined to include

agents ... of the state or any state agency ... and persons acting on behalf of the state or any state agency in any official capacity, temporarily or permanently in the service of the state of Iowa, whether with or without compensation. ...

Id. § 669.2(4) (emphasis added). It is important to keep in mind that the term "employee" as used in chapter 669 includes unpaid volunteers as well as paid workers.

We turn now to the indemnity and immunity provisions of this statute. At the outset, it is helpful to note the distinction between a right to be defended and indemnified by the State and immunity-the absence of personal liability. See Dickerson v. Mertz, 547 N.W.2d 208, 213 (Iowa 1996) (referring to statute providing that state employees "are not personally liable" for certain claims as granting such employees immunity). Chapter 669's indemnity provision is found in section 669.21, which provides that the State will defend and indemnify "any employee" against claims falling within chapter 669, subject to exceptions not pertinent to this case. Iowa Code § 669.21.

Chapter 669 contains two immunity provisions, one covering all employees and one applicable to volunteers. See id. §§ 669. 23, .24. All employees are granted immunity for exempted claims, i.e., claims that do not fall within the State Tort Claims Act. See Iowa Code § 669.23 ("Employees of ...