King v. Otasco, Inc.
| Decision Date | 06 December 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-4773,87-4773 |
| Citation | 861 F.2d 438 |
| Parties | Larry G. KING, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. OTASCO, INCORPORATED, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Harris Bell Williams, Pascagoula, Miss., J.K. Morett, Morett and Thorne, Tupelo, Miss., for plaintiff-appellant.
David L. Sanders, Peter W. Cleveland, Columbus, Miss., for Otasco, Inc.
John S. Hill, Tupelo, Miss., for Smith.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Before THORNBERRY, RUBIN, and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.
This case presents three issues. The first is whether a state's statute of limitations should be applied separately to each of the claims stated in a complaint or to the "essence" of the allegations considered as a whole. We hold that the statute of limitations applies to each claim, not merely to the pith of the litigation. The second issue is whether a father's failure to specify in a notice of appeal that he is suing as his children's next friend deprives an appellate court of jurisdiction over an appeal of the dismissal of the children's claims. We hold that it does not. The third issue is whether children who allege that they were left essentially unsupervised in a mobile home for almost three days as a result of the negligently-caused arrest of their father have stated a claim under California law for negligent infliction of emotional distress. We hold that they have stated a claim sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff Larry G. King alleges that on or about September 15, 1984, he bought a stereo and other items valued at about $300.00 from an Otasco store in Borger, Texas on open account. In December, King moved to Taft, California, and shortly thereafter paid his account balance in full. On Friday, May 1, 1985, the Taft police stopped King while he was driving home with his children because his automobile tail light was inoperative. In a routine check the police found that a warrant for King's arrest had been issued from Borger, Texas. The police then arrested King, handcuffed him, transported him to Bakersfield, California, and imprisoned him. The law enforcement officers escorted King's children to his mobile home and left them under the occasional supervision of his landlord. They kept King in custody until Sunday when Otasco notified the Bakersfield authorities that he had paid his account in full and that charges had been dropped.
Some time later, King moved to Mississippi where he filed this suit. In it he maintained that Otasco and its employee Jerry Smith--or perhaps Floyd Smith or the employees of Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company--had issued the warrant for his arrest and were responsible for failing to withdraw it. Instead of making a simple negligence claim, however, King fired a barrage of charges. He asserted separate causes of action for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, outrageous conduct, negligently causing the arrest of another, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and, as further separate causes of action, actual damages, humiliation and suffering, physical injury, and loss of companionship of minor children. As next friend on behalf of his children, King added claims for "loss of companionship/consortium" and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Instead of examining whether the statute of limitations had run with regard to each of the separate claims King asserted in his own right, the district court looked to what it deemed "the essential nature" of these allegations. The court determined that in essence King was asserting claims for the intentional tort of malicious prosecution, and that Mississippi's one-year statute of limitations for intentional torts therefore barred all of his claims. The court further determined that California law governed the substantive claims King asserted on behalf of his children and dismissed these claims as not cognizable under California law.
Because this diversity suit was filed in Mississippi, Mississippi law determines which state's law applies. 1 Mississippi applies its own statute of limitations to claims arising in other states, 2 and its limitations period for malicious prosecution and other intentional torts is one year. 3
King asserts that, because he alleges both intentional and negligent torts, Mississippi's one-year statute of limitations cannot bar all of his claims. In his view, only Mississippi's six-year statute of limitations for negligent torts 4 applies to his claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress and for negligently causing physical and economic harm.
In a diversity suit a federal court must analyze a statute of limitations defense in three separate steps. First, if it might make a difference, the court must determine which state's substantive law applies to the plaintiff's claims. Second, the court must identify each cause of action the plaintiff asserts that is cognizable under the governing law. Finally, the court must apply the appropriate statute of limitations to each of the causes of action. Because King's allegations would be considered to include both negligent and intentional torts under the law of any state, we proceed directly to the second and third steps.
When a suit alleges several distinct causes of action, even if they arise from a single event, the applicable limitations period must be determined by analyzing each cause of action separately. As the Mississippi Supreme Court has stated, "Where a party has two or more remedies for enforcement of a right, the fact that one remedy is barred by the statute of limitations does not bar the other remedies." 5 Therefore, King's allegations of intentional torts cannot cancel his allegations of negligence.
The gestalt approach adopted by the district court might cause a number of significant problems. First, a court's determination of the "essence" of the plaintiff's claims is likely to be highly metaphysical--indeed, it is by no means clear that characterizing King's claim as "malicious prosecution" rather than negligence, false imprisonment, or even bad-faith debt collection, captures the one true "essence" of this case. Second, if the district court's approach were adopted, plaintiffs bringing suit after the statute of limitations for intentional torts had run would be forced either to forego any suggestion that the defendant's tortious conduct was intentional or to risk the dismissal of all of their claims. This result is directly contrary to the principle that the statute of limitations is an affirmative defense that is waived unless it is pleaded. 6 Finally, even if the district court's approach deterred plaintiffs anxious to preserve their negligence claims from alleging intentional torts in their initial complaints, it would not prevent them from attempting to add intentional-tort claims by amendment. Because the statute of limitations is an affirmative defense, it would not inhibit these motions to amend. The "essence-of-the-case" approach therefore might cause a great deal of unnecessary motion practice.
Plaintiffs, of course, cannot be allowed to obtain trials for intentional tort claims after the statute of limitations has barred them merely by engaging in artful pleading. This principle underlies the cases relied on by the district court. 7 If, however, a claim can plausibly withstand a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, it cannot be treated as a mere rewording of a barred claim. Instead, therefore, of probing for the essence of King's suit, the district court should have analyzed each of his claims on its own merits.
Under Mississippi law, "[t]he policy ... has been to provide a short one-year statute of limitations for listed intentional torts and a long six-year statute of limitations for 'case' actions." 8 The listed intentional torts are:
"[a]ll actions for assault, assault and battery, maiming, false imprisonment, malicious arrest, or menace, and all actions for slanderous words ... and for libels ..." 9
King's claims are of four types. First, he alleges false imprisonment and false arrest, both of which are intentional torts expressly listed in the Mississippi one-year statute. King's "claims" for humiliation and suffering, actual damages, physical injury, and loss of companionship, on the other hand, are not causes of action at all but simply specifications of damage. The claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and outrageous conduct are of a third kind: although not explicitly listed in the one-year statute, they are undoubtedly intentional torts, and so closely analogous to the common law actions for assault, libel, and slanderous words that they too must fall within the statute's bar. King's remaining causes of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligently causing the arrest of another fall into a final category. They do not charge intentional torts, and are more analogous to common law "case" actions than to trespass actions. Accordingly, Mississippi's one-year statute of limitations does not bar them. In so holding, of course, we express no opinion concerning the merits of these claims.
The district court dismissed the claims King asserted on behalf of his children because he had failed to state a claim for which relief might be granted. In a letter that we treat as a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, Otasco asserts that King's notice of appeal failed to comply with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(c) because he did not name his children in the notice, and that this court therefore lacks jurisdiction to hear the children's appeal under the Supreme Court's recent decision in Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co. 10 Consequently, before turning to the merits of the children's claims, we must first determine our jurisdiction.
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..."negligent infliction of emotional distress [claim is] governed by the three-year statute of limitations."); King v. Otasco, 861 F.2d 438, 442 (5th Cir. 1988). In light of the plaintiff's concession in this matter, this portion of the defendant's motion for summary judgment shall be granted......
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...725 (Miss.1989) implicitly recognizes an action for false arrest subject to Section 15-1-35's one year time bar. In King v. Otasco, Inc., 861 F.2d 438, 442 (5th Cir.1988), the Court of Appeals "guessed" we would hold an action for the intentional tort of false arrest (among others) governed......
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