Kirwan v. State

• Decision Date: 27 May 1975
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Andrew D. KIRWAN v. STATE of Connecticut et al.

Page 56

363 A.2d 56

168 Conn. 498

Andrew D. KIRWAN v. STATE of Connecticut et al.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

May 27, 1975.

David B. Salzman, New Haven, for appellant (plaintiff).

Bruce W. Manternach, Hartford, with whom, on the brief, was Jack S. Kennedy, Hartford, for appellee (defendant Institute of Living).

Before HOUSE, C.J., and LOISELLE, MacDONALD, BOGDANSKI and LONGO, JJ.

LONGO, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff instituted this action in two counts to recover damages for false imprisonment and negligent medical attention, arising from his commitment to a mental institution in 1941.

One of the defendants, the Hartford Retreat, now known as the Institute of Living, hereinafter Institute, filed a special defense claiming that the plaintiff's action is barred by the Statute of Limitations since the alleged acts of the Institute did not occur within three years or six years next before the commencement of the action. In an affirmative reply to this defense the plaintiff claimed that any statute of limitations which might apply was tolled because of the plaintiff's unsound mind and his false imprisonment. The trial court sustained the Institute's demurrer to the plaintiff's affirmative reply and, the plaintiff having failed to plead over, judgment was rendered in favor of the Institute. Kirwan v. State, 31 Conn.Sup. 46, 320 A.2d 837. This appeal is from that judgment.

The correctness of a ruling sustaining a demurrer is determined upon the basis of the facts which may properly be proven under the allegations demurred to; Rutt v. Roche, 138 Conn. 605, 608-9, 87 A.2d 805; and these are to be given the same favorable construction that the trier would adopt in admitting evidence. McNish v. American Brass Co., 139 Conn. 44, 48-49, 89 A.2d 566, cert. denied, 344 U.S. 913, 73 S.Ct. 336, 97 L.Ed. 704.

The complaint alleges the following: In August, 1941, the plaintiff, a resident of the state of New York, was lured into Connecticut and committed to the Institute pursuant to an order of the Probate Court for the district of Hartford, 'to be confined while said mental illness continues, or until he shall be discharged in due course of law.' Despite the plaintiff's repeated requests to be released and returned to New York, he was kept under close supervision and restraint at the Institute against his will until July 20, 1942, when he was transferred, successively, to two privately owned asylums in Connecticut, where he remained until August 11, 1967, and then was transferred to a hospital located in the state of New York. He was released March 6, 1972, after a court in that state so ordered. The plaintiff, who is now deceased, instituted this action by complaint dated February 7, 1973.

Neither of the relevant Statutes of Limitations ¹ makes provision for tolling in the case of insane persons. While it must be admitted that this omission is unusual in the light of the fact that in at least forty-six states there is provision for tolling; see statutes cited in 4 Am.Jur. Trials 602, Statutes of Limitation, appendix fig. 7; and that its absence may work hardship, it is not the function of this court to pass upon the merit of legislation. Kennedy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, 135 Conn. 176, 179, 62 A.2d 771. Suffice it to say that the omission of a tolling provision in these sections of the General Statutes is highlighted by the inclusion of tolling provisions in another section; ² hence, we must assume that the differences were intentional and that the legislature did not intend insanity necessarily to toll the Statute of Limitations. Lametta v. Connecticut Light & Power Co., 139 Conn. 218, 92 A.2d 731, and see cases cited therein. It is clear that the plaintiff's insanity does not toll the Statute of Limitations, any more than a person's ignorance that a cause of action exists saves him from the operation of limitations. Kennedy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, supra, 135 Conn. 179, 62 A.2d 771. Consequently, the plain meaning and intent of the statute bars the plaintiff's negligence claim in the absence of any allegation that the Institute fraudulently concealed from him the existence of a cause of action. See General Statutes § 52-595; Rosenblatt v. Berman, 143 Conn. 31, 40, 119 A.2d 118.

The plaintiff claims that the Statute of Limitations should not have run while he was insane, raising in his brief for the first time the possibility that he was under disability. If the plaintiff were legally incompetent to sue or his access to the courts were impaired the statute could not commence the limitations period running until he regained his legal competency; otherwise, through no fault of his own, he could be barred from any redress and thus become a legally helpless and vunerable target for any careless or malicious person. See Hobart v. Connecticut Turnpike Co., 15 Conn. 145, 148. Furthermore, in no case does the law deprive an insane person or a person under a disability of access to the courts in order to seek redress, but a court may make provision to insure that such person's interests are well represented. See, e.g., General Statutes §§ 17-201 (habeas corpus), ³ 45-75 (conservators), 45-54 (guardian ad litem), 52-175 (evidence); Cole v. Jerman, 77 Conn. 374, 380, 59 A. 425; Neely v. Hogan,62 Misc.2d 1056, 310 N.Y.S.2d 63, 69-70.

...