Hughes v. Roosevelt
| Citation | 107 F.2d 901 |
| Decision Date | 04 December 1939 |
| Docket Number | No. 73.,73. |
| Parties | HUGHES v. ROOSEVELT. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Dominick Blasi, of Brooklyn, N. Y. (Silas B. Axtell, of New York City, on the brief), for libelant-appellant.
John L. Quinlan, of New York City (Bigham, Englar, Jones & Houston, of New York City, on the brief), for defendant-respondent.
Before SWAN, CHASE, and CLARK, Circuit Judges.
On October 19, 1937, Hughes filed his libel in admiralty against Roosevelt for personal injuries claimed to have been sustained by him on August 10, 1934, while on board the respondent's yacht "Mistress." He asserted that by reason of the negligence of respondent's agents a spinnaker boom "carried away, broke or otherwise parted, striking libellant upon his head and knocking him down with such great force and violence" that he was permanently injured. The court sustained exceptions to the libel, based on the claim that, as shown on its face, the action was barred by the statute of limitations and by laches, but gave libelant leave to serve an amended libel. Thereupon libelant amended his allegations of injury to assert: Exceptions based on the same grounds as before were filed and were sustained by the court in the decree from which this appeal is taken.
The court applied the well known rule that, while there are no statutes of limitations in admiralty, the doctrine of laches is applied in lieu thereof, and that a state statute of limitations applicable to a similar injury on land may by analogy furnish a suitable yardstick to determine what constitutes laches, citing Marshall v International Mercantile Marine Co., 2 Cir., 39 F.2d 551; Westfall Larson & Co. et al. v. Allman-Hubble Tug Boat Co. et al., 9 Cir., 73 F.2d 200; The Sydfold, 2 Cir., 86 F.2d 611. It held that the appropriate analogy here was the New York state statute restricting an action to recover damages for a personal injury resulting from negligence to three years "after the cause of action has accrued." Civil Practice Act N.Y. § 49(6). Under the New York statute, too, insanity at the time when the cause of action accrues is a disability preventing the running of the statute of limitations during the period here involved. Civil Practice Act N.Y. § 60. Further, by Civil Practice Act N.Y. § 28, "a person cannot avail himself of a disability unless it existed when his right of action or of entry accrued." The court pointed out that the disability must exist when the right accrues. It then said: And so it sustained the exceptions.
In The Sydfold, supra, this court held that, where a libel showed that the cause set up was apparently barred by a state statute of limitations, it was incumbent on the libelant to plead facts negativing laches or tolling the statute. It went on to say that the libelant's affidavits could not supply the deficiency, since no practice such as that of the summary judgment was sanctioned in admiralty, but an amendment of the libel should be permitted, for on a hearing "the libelant might have been able to furnish proof of facts that would have tolled the statute or excused his apparent laches, or accomplished both things." 86 F.2d 612. Here there was not a total lack of any pleading on the matter; there was the quite general allegation of insanity quoted above. No motion was made to have this allegation particularized. In former days of special pleading such an allegation might have been held fatal on a general demurrer; though actually at strict common law the statute of limitations was a defense and no question of pleading a disability in the complaint could arise. Atkinson, Pleading the Statute of Limitations, 36 Yale L.J. 914. Now more general pleading is permitted, certainly as against the objection of failure to state any claim. In the light of The Sydfold, supra, however, we cannot say the court below...
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