Nadra v. Mbah

• Decision Date: 12 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. 2007-0525.,2007-0525.
• Citation: 893 N.E.2d 829,2008 Ohio 3918,119 Ohio St.3d 305
• Parties: NADRA, Appellee, v. MBAH et al., Appellants.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

893 N.E.2d 829

119 Ohio St.3d 305

2008-Ohio-3918

NADRA, Appellee, v. MBAH et al., Appellants.

No. 2007-0525.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted February 27, 2008.

Decided August 12, 2008.

Iyabo Nadra, pro se.

Ron O'Brien, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, and R. Matthew Colon, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellants.

Nancy Hardin Rogers, Attorney General, and William P. Marshall, Solicitor General, urging reversal for amicus curiae state of Ohio.

LUNDBERG STRATTON, J.

I. Introduction

{¶ 1} We are asked to determine which statute of limitations governs actions filed in Ohio under Section 1983, Title 42, U.S.Code. The United States Supreme Court has instructed that in Section 1983 actions, courts must apply a state's general or residual statute of limitations that governs personal-injury actions. Owens v. Okure (1989), 488 U.S. 235, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594. We hold that R.C. 2305.10, which contains a two-year limitations period, is Ohio's general statute of limitations governing personal injury in Ohio. Therefore, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

II. Facts

{¶ 2} After receiving reports of child abuse, on January 2, 2002, Franklin County Children's Services ("FCCS") and the Columbus Police investigated the home of appellee, Reverend Iyabo Nadra. They found Nadra's nine-year-old son locked in the basement. On January 3, 2002, appellant, Mindy Grote, an FCCS case worker, and appellant, Susan Mbah, an FCCS intake worker, filed a complaint alleging that Nadra punished her son by locking him in the basement, chaining him to a pole at times, withholding food from him, and making him use a bucket as a toilet. Consequently, the complaint asserted that Nadra's son was abused, neglected, and dependent.

{¶ 3} The juvenile court granted temporary custody of the child to FCCS. On August 20, 2002, the juvenile court terminated FCCS's temporary custody and granted permanent custody of Nadra's son to the child's father.

{¶ 4} The state also charged Nadra with kidnapping, abduction, and child endangering. On November 12, 2003, a jury found Nadra not guilty on charges of abduction and kidnapping, but could not reach a verdict on the child-endangering charge.

{¶ 5} On February 25, 2005, Nadra, proceeding pro se, filed a civil action against Mbah and Grote alleging that the child-abuse complaint was false and that FCCS failed to return her child to her custody after the criminal charges against her were resolved. Nadra claimed that these actions caused her to suffer injuries, including "irreversible harm and damage to her physical, mental and spiritual person."

{¶ 6} Apparently interpreting Nadra's complaint to allege an action against state officials acting under color of law, Mbah and Grote filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the two-year statute of limitations for personal injury in R.C. 2305.10 and the two-year statute of limitations in R.C. 2744.04 had both expired before Nadra filed her complaint. Ultimately, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Mbah and Grote as to all Nadra's claims, finding that the limitations periods in R.C. 2744.04 and 2305.10 had expired before Nadra filed her complaint.

{¶ 7} The court of appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court that to the extent that Nadra alleged claims against a political subdivision, her complaint was time-barred because the two-year statute of limitations in R.C. 2744.04(A) had expired before Nadra filed suit. Nadra v. Mbah, Franklin App. No. 06AP-829, 2007-Ohio-501, 2007 WL 339175, at ¶ 24. But the court of appeals held that the trial court erred when it applied the two-year statute of limitations in R.C. 2305.10 to Nadra's Section 1983 claims. Id. at ¶ 41. Instead, the court of appeals held that the proper statute of limitations was R.C. 2305.09(D), which provides a four-year limitations period, and therefore Nadra's claims were not time-barred. Thus, the court of appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the trial court.

{¶ 8} This cause is before this court upon the acceptance of Mbah and Grote's discretionary appeal. They argue that R.C. 2305.10, not R.C. 2305.09(D), is the applicable statute of limitations for a Section 1983 claim.

III. Analysis

A. Courts Must Apply a State's General or Residual Statute of Limitations Governing Personal Injuries

{¶ 9} Congress enacted Section 1983, Title 42, U.S.Code to afford a civil remedy for deprivations of federally protected rights caused by persons acting under color of state law. Wyatt v. Cole (1992), 504 U.S. 158, 161, 112 S.Ct. 1827, 118 L.Ed.2d 504. "The paradigmatic § 1983 claim in 1871 [when the statute was first enacted] involved a victim of violence or harassment who sued state officials for failing to prevent the harm." Okure, 488 U.S. at 250, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594, fn. 11. Yet, "Congress did not establish a statute of limitations or a body of tolling rules applicable to actions brought in federal court under § 1983—a void which is commonplace in federal statutory law. When such a void occurs, this Court has repeatedly `borrowed' the state law of limitations governing an analogous cause of action." Bd. of Regents of Univ. of State of New York v. Tomanio (1980), 446 U.S. 478, 483-484, 100 S.Ct. 1790, 64 L.Ed.2d 440. The court in Tomanio reasoned that "[i]n 42 U.S.C. § 1988, Congress `quite clearly instructs [federal courts] to refer to state statutes' when federal law provides no rule of decision for actions brought under § 1983." (Brackets sic.) Id. at 484, 100 S.Ct. 1790, 64 L.Ed.2d 440, quoting Robertson v. Wegmann (1978), 436 U.S. 584, 593, 98 S.Ct. 1991, 56 L.Ed.2d 554.

{¶ 10} However, because Section 1983 can override state laws and supplements any available state remedy, the 1983 remedy can have no precise counterpart in state law. Wilson v. Garcia (1985), 471 U.S. 261, 272, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254. Therefore "it is `the purest coincidence' when state statutes or the common law provide for equivalent remedies; any analogies to those causes of action are bound to be imperfect." (Citation omitted.) Id., quoting Monroe v. Pape (1961), 365 U.S. 167, 196, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (Harlan, J., concurring). Thus, "[t]he practice of seeking state-law analogies for particular § 1983 claims bred confusion and inconsistency in the lower courts and generated time-consuming litigation. Some courts found analogies in common-law tort, others in contract law, and still others in statutory law. Often the result had less to do with the general nature of § 1983 relief than with counsel's artful pleading and ability to persuade the court that the facts and legal theories of a particular § 1983 claim resembled a particular common-law or statutory cause of action. Consequently, plaintiffs and defendants often had no idea of whether a federal civil rights claim was barred until a court ruled on their case." (Footnote omitted.) Okure, 488 U.S. at 240, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594.

{¶ 11} In an attempt to remedy the confusion, the court again examined the question of choice of a statute of limitations for Section 1983 claims in Wilson, 471 U.S. 261, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254. The court found that "practical considerations help to explain why a simple, broad characterization of all § 1983 claims best fits the statute's remedial purpose." Id. at 272, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254. "The federal interests in uniformity, certainty, and the minimization of unnecessary litigation all support the conclusion that Congress favored this simple approach." Id. at 275, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254. The court found that "[g]eneral personal injury actions, sounding in tort, constitute a major part of the total volume of civil litigation in the state courts today, and probably did so in 1871 when § 1983 was enacted." (Footnote omitted.) Id. at 279, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254. Thus, the court held that Section 1983 claims are best characterized as personal-injury actions for the purpose of determining the most appropriate statute of limitations. Accordingly, Wilson instructed courts to borrow a state's statute of limitations for personal-injury actions to govern Section 1983 claims. Id. at 280, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254.

{¶ 12} Unfortunately, however, Wilson did not end the confusion in determining the proper statute of limitations when state law provides multiple statutes of limitations for personal-injury actions. Okure, 488 U.S. at 241, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594. The defendants in Okure contended that Section 1983 actions should be governed by a one-year New York statute of limitations that applied to eight intentional torts. However, the court in Okure found that every state has multiple intentional-tort limitations provisions and reasoned that "[w]ere we to call upon courts to apply the state statute of limitations governing intentional torts, we would succeed only in transferring the present confusion over the choice among multiple personal injury provisions to a choice among multiple intentional tort provisions." Id. at 244, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594.

{¶ 13} The court went on to find that "[i]n marked contrast to the multiplicity of state intentional tort statutes of limitation, every State has only one general or residual statute of limitations governing personal injury actions." Id. at 245, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594. The court explained that "[s]ome States have a general provision which applies to all personal injury actions with certain specific exceptions. Others have a residual provision which applies to all actions not specifically provided for, including personal injury actions." Id. at 246, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594. Thus, the court held that "where state law provides multiple statutes of limitations for personal injury actions, courts considering § 1983 claims should borrow the general or residual statute for personal injury actions." Id. at 249-250, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102...