Sattler v. Bailey

• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: McHUGH
• Citation: Sattler v. Bailey, 184 W.Va. 212, 400 S.E.2d 220 (W. Va. 1990)
• Decision Date: 30 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. 19249,19249
• Parties: William SATTLER v. Ralph BAILEY, in His Former Capacity as a Member of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety, a Governmental Agency of the State of West Virginia, and Ralph Bailey, Individually; West Virginia Department of Public Safety, a Governmental Agency of the State of West Virginia; John W. O'Rourke, in His Official Capacity as Former Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety; Fred W. Donahoe, in His Official Capacity as Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety and Successor in Office of John W. O'Rourke, Former Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety.

Page 220

400 S.E.2d 220

184 W.Va. 212

William SATTLER v. Ralph BAILEY, in His Former Capacity as a Member of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety, a Governmental Agency of the State of West Virginia, and Ralph Bailey Individually; West Virginia Department of Public Safety, a Governmental Agency of the State of West Virginia; John W O'Rourke, in His Official Capacity as Former Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety; Fred W Donahoe, in His Official Capacity as Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety and Successor in Office of John W. O'Rourke, Former Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety.

No. 19249.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Nov. 30, 1990.

Syllabus by the Court

1. "An adjudication by a court having jurisdiction of the subject-matter and the parties is final and conclusive, not only as to the matters actually determined, but as to every other matter which the parties might have litigated as incident thereto and coming within the legitimate purview of the subject-matter of the action. It is not essential that the matter should have been formally put in issue in a former suit, but it is sufficient that the status of the suit was such that the parties might have had the matter disposed of on its merits. An erroneous ruling of the court will not prevent the matter from being res judicata." Syl. pt. 1, Sayre's Adm'r v. Harpold, 33 W.Va. 553, 11 S.E. 16 (1890) (emphasis in original).

2. When the federal claim in a federal action is dismissed by the federal court prior to trial, and, therefore, it is clear that the federal court would have declined to exercise jurisdiction of a related state claim which could have been raised in the federal action pursuant to the "pendent" jurisdiction of the federal court, a subsequent action in a state court on the state claim which would have been dismissed, without prejudice, in the prior federal action is not barred by the doctrine of res judicata.

3. The general statute of limitations, W.Va.Code, 55-2-12, as amended, is tolled, with respect to an undiscovered wrongdoer, by virtue of the fraudulent concealment or obstruction of prosecution doctrine embodied in W.Va.Code, 55-2-17, as amended, when an action is brought timely against the known wrongdoer(s) and, despite the due diligence of the injured person to discover the identity of all the wrongdoers, the identity of one or more of them is hidden by words or acts constituting affirmative concealment, that is, a "cover-up." Tolling of the statute of limitations with respect to an undiscovered wrongdoer is especially appropriate in a case in which, as part of the cover-up, the injured person is impeded in discovering the identity of the wrongdoer in question by the invocation of governmental secrecy. In a case involving a wrongdoer whose identity is affirmatively concealed, the injured person must bring his or her action against such wrongdoer within the statutory period after the injured person discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, that wrongdoer's identity.

Ernest V. Morton, Jr., Morton & Morton, Webster Springs, Michael C. Farber, Sutton, for William Sattler.

Daniel Schuda, Steptoe & Johnson, Charleston, for Ralph Bailey et al.

McHUGH, Justice:

The appellant, William Sattler, brought this appeal of a final order of the Circuit Court of Kanawha County, West Virginia, granting the appellees' motion to dismiss on the ground that a judgment in a federal civil action involving the same parties was res judicata for purposes of this state civil action. ¹ We conclude that the federal court's ruling was not res judicata and, accordingly, reverse and remand for further proceedings. In addition, we believe it is appropriate to provide guidance on the statute of limitations defense, which was raised as an alternative ground for the motion to dismiss.

I

The facts of this case must be recited in some detail in order to understand the proper application of the law. ²

On March 4, 1982, a fire destroyed the appellant's tavern in Nicholas County, West Virginia. Shortly thereafter, a fire incident report compiled by the local volunteer fire department indicated that the apparent cause of the fire was an accidental problem associated with a coal-burning stove in the tavern. In April of 1983, however, the appellant began to hear gossip about the possible arson of his tavern by the then Sheriff of Nicholas County, Darrell Johnson. A newspaper article in June, 1983, also suggested that the Prosecuting Attorney of Nicholas County had evidence that the appellant's tavern had been destroyed due to the arson committed by the county sheriff. The newspaper article stated that a report prepared by a state police officer who had investigated the matter ("the Shelton report") indicated there was no evidence that state police officers assigned to Nicholas County had been involved in the arson.

After the Prosecuting Attorney of Nicholas County refused to provide a copy of the Shelton report, the appellant brought a mandamus proceeding in this Court to compel disclosure by the prosecutor under the State Freedom of Information Act. ³ In Sattler v. Holliday, 173 W.Va. 471, 318 S.E.2d 50 (1984), we held that the appellant's request for relief from this Court was premature because the Circuit Court of Nicholas County had not been given the statutorily required opportunity to evaluate the propriety of the prosecutor's refusal to disclose the investigative report. Id., 173 W.Va. at 472-73, 318 S.E.2d at 52.

In February, 1984, the appellant brought a civil action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as amended, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. His claim for deprivation of civil rights as a result of the alleged arson of his tavern, and as a result of the alleged conspiracy related thereto, was brought against Sheriff Johnson and two of his deputies, Lloyd Dillon and Robert Bennett, among other governmental officials. On October 31, 1984, one of the appellees here, Ralph Bailey, a former state police officer, denied involvement in the alleged arson, during a deposition taken by the appellant in the federal civil rights action. ⁴

On October 10, 1985, Messrs. Johnson, Dillon, Bennett, and appellee Bailey were indicted by state and federal grand juries for their alleged involvement in the alleged arson of the appellant's tavern. Bailey subsequently was found not guilty of the criminal charges. ⁵

In September, 1986, the appellant agreed to have the federal district court dismiss his 1984 complaint without prejudice. The appellant obtained agreements from two of the defendants, Johnson and Dillon, to waive their right to assert that the action was barred by the statute of limitations in the event that the appellant filed another complaint in federal district court. Two days after the appellant agreed to have his first complaint dismissed, he filed a second complaint in federal district court. The second complaint added, as defendants, among others, three of the four appellees here, namely, Bailey, the West Virginia Department of Public Safety (Bailey's employer at the relevant time) and Mr. Donahoe, as Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety. The second complaint filed in federal district court was otherwise nearly identical to the first complaint.

The defendants in the federal civil rights action, other than Johnson and Dillon, moved to dismiss on the ground that the federal civil rights action was barred by the analogous, two-year, general state statute of limitations for personal injuries and property damage, W.Va.Code, 55-2-12 [1959]. ⁶ The appellant contended his action was not time-barred because an alleged cover-up of their involvement by these defendants had prevented him from obtaining sufficient information to form the basis of a complaint against them until the issuance of the indictments in October, 1985.

In February, 1987, the federal district court granted the motion to dismiss. It held that the appellant had discovered sufficient information to form the basis of the complaint against some of the defendants (Johnson, Dillon and Bennett) in February, 1984, and that the statute of limitations was not tolled as to the defendants added later, namely, the appellees here. On appeal the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal based upon the statute of limitations. Sattler v. Johnson, 857 F.2d 224 (4th Cir.1988).

On October 1, 1987, the appellant filed the complaint in this civil action in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County, West Virginia. Messrs. Bailey and Donahoe, as well as Mr. O'Rourke, Donahoe's predecessor in the office of Superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Public Safety, and that Department were named as the defendants. The appellant alleged in this complaint that Bailey, Johnson, Dillon and Bennett were responsible for destroying his tavern by fire; that O'Rourke and Donahoe and the West Virginia Department of Public Safety had negligently supervised Bailey; that the appellant had used due diligence to discover the perpetrators of the alleged arson; and that he had been able to identify and bring legal action against Johnson, Dillon and Bennett within two years of the date of the tort, but that, due to a cover-up by the West Virginia Department of Public Safety, the appellant had been unable to identify Bailey as one of the perpetrators until the indictments against him were returned on October 10, 1985, within two years of the filing of this action.

The defendants-appellees moved to dismiss this state civil action on the ground that the action was barred by the alleged res judicata effect of the judgment of the federal court holding that the federal civil rights action against the same defendants involved here was time-barred. As an alternative ground for their motion to dismiss, the appellees argued that,...