Smith v. City of Chicago Heights
| Decision Date | 13 January 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-2976,90-2976 |
| Citation | 951 F.2d 834 |
| Parties | King SMITH, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF CHICAGO HEIGHTS, a body politic and municipal corporation, Charles Ewers, individually and as agent of the City of Chicago Heights and Robert Pinnow, individually and as agent of the City of Chicago Heights, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Lawrence H. Hyman, Chicago, Ill. (argued), for plaintiff-appellant.
Charles E. Hervas, James G. Sotos, James R. Schirott, Michael W. Condon (argued), Patrick K. Bond, Phillip A. Luetkehans, A.J. Pankau, Jr., Michael D. Bersani, Schirott & Hervas, Itasca, Ill., for defendants-appellees.
Before CUMMINGS and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges, and ESCHBACH, Senior Circuit Judge.
In 1985, King Smith, Jr., was allegedly assaulted by one of several police officers who had stopped his vehicle. Mr. Smith initially brought suit against the wrong party, and it was not until March 19, 1990, that Mr. Smith brought this civil rights action against the present defendants. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss on the ground that the two-year statute of limitations had expired. For the following reasons, we affirm in part and vacate in part the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings.
On March 18, 1985, after a chase through Lake County, Indiana, to Chicago Heights, Illinois, police officers stopped the vehicle in which King Smith, Jr., was traveling. After Mr. Smith was out of the vehicle and had been handcuffed, one officer allegedly attacked and beat him. Officers from various Indiana municipalities as well as from Chicago Heights were present. On March 18, 1987, Mr. Smith filed a civil rights action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. Working from police reports prepared by officers from Chicago Heights, Mr. Smith named as defendants certain Indiana municipalities and unknown police officers.
On January 13, 1988, Charles Ewers, a Chicago Heights police officer, stated in his deposition that officers from police departments of the various Indiana municipalities had assaulted Mr. Smith and that officers from Chicago Heights had not participated in the attack. On February 23, 1988, Patrick Gannon, a police officer and paramedic with the Lansing, Indiana, Police Department stated in his deposition that Mr. Smith had been assaulted by a Chicago Heights officer and not by any Indiana police officers. Faced with the conflicting statements of Officers Ewers and Gannon, Mr. Smith voluntarily dismissed his action with prejudice.
After investigation, Mr. Smith concluded that it was Ewers who had assaulted him and that Ewers and the other members of the Chicago Heights Police Department misled Mr. Smith in their depositions and police reports.
On March 19, 1990, Mr. Smith filed the present suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He alleged a violation of his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, along with a state claim of battery. The district court dismissed the suit on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. 1 The district court did not accept Mr.
Smith's argument that Illinois' fraudulent concealment statute excused his noncompliance with the statute of limitations. The court did not address the applicability of either equitable tolling or equitable estoppel. Mr. Smith filed a timely notice of appeal from the dismissal of his action
Mr. Smith contends that the district court erred in dismissing his case on the grounds that it was time-barred. Mr. Smith argues that his suit is made timely either by Illinois' fraudulent concealment statute or by the doctrines of equitable tolling and equitable estoppel. 2
Mr. Smith contends that under Illinois' fraudulent concealment statute his suit was not time-barred. This statute provides for a five-year limitations period from the time of discovery where a party "liable to an action fraudulently conceals the cause of such action from the knowledge of the person entitled thereto." Ill.Ann.Stat. ch. 110, p 13-215 (Smith-Hurd 1984). 3 Thus, Mr. Smith concludes, the instant action is not time-barred because he filed his complaint within five years from the date of Officer Gannon's deposition.
The district court considered paragraph 13-215 and concluded that it does not apply to Mr. Smith's case. We agree. Illinois courts have unequivocally construed this provision to reach only fraudulent concealment of the cause of action--not fraudulent concealment of the identity of the tortfeasor. McDaniel v. La Salle Ambulance Serv., Inc., 108 Ill.App.3d 1042, 64 Ill.Dec. 606, 608, 440 N.E.2d 158, 160 (1982) (); Pratt v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 71 Ill.App.3d 825, 28 Ill.Dec. 304, 308, 390 N.E.2d 471, 475 (1979) (); Guebard v. Jabaay, 65 Ill.App.3d 255, 21 Ill.Dec. 620, 381 N.E.2d 1164, 1167 (1978) () (emphasis in original).
These cases preclude this court from applying Illinois' fraudulent concealment statute to Mr. Smith's case. On March 18, 1985--the date Mr. Smith was attacked and beaten--Mr. Smith knew of sufficient facts upon which to base a cause of action. That Mr. Smith did not know the identity of the proper defendants does not further his argument, because the fraudulent concealment statute is concerned with cases in which the injury--not merely the identity of the wrongdoer--is hidden. It is uncontroverted that Mr. Smith knew of his injury on March 18, 1985.
Alternatively, Mr. Smith contends that, because the defendants actively concealed their identities, the doctrines of equitable tolling and equitable estoppel should bar the defendants from pleading the statute of limitations or suspend the running of the limitations period from the time of the injury until the day he was reasonably sure that it was the defendants, rather than the Indiana police officers, who were responsible for his injuries.
Defendants argue that Mr. Smith waived the issues of equitable tolling and equitable estoppel because he failed to raise them in the district court. We note that Mr. Smith's complaint alleges not only the facts of the alleged assault, but also that the defendants "conspired and intentionally withheld information of the actions of the Defendant, CHARLES EWERS, which prevented the Plaintiff, KING SMITH, JR., from seeking recovery." R.1 at 5. In their memorandum of law in support of their motion to dismiss, defendants specifically addressed the allegation that they had intentionally withheld information. R.18 at 2. In his response to the motion to dismiss, Mr. Smith discussed the defendant's misconduct at length and argued that "the Defendants should not be in a position to use the Statute of Limitations to protect the fraudulent concealment of a cause of action." R.25 at 7. In their reply brief to Mr. Smith's response, defendants argued:
In federal causes of action, the Seventh Circuit has applied the federal doctrine of equitable tolling rather than the Illinois fraudulent concealment statute. Suslick v. Rothschild Sec. Corp., 741 F.2d 1000 (7th Cir.1984). See also Sperry v. Barggren, 523 F.2d 708, 710 (7th Cir.1975) ()....
R.27 at 3-4. Defendants went on to analyze Suslick in light of the facts of this case and "the doctrine of equitable tolling." R.27 at 5. On this record, we cannot hold that these issues were waived. Although the district court and the parties focused on Illinois' fraudulent concealment statute rather than the equitable doctrines, those doctrines were brought to the attention of the court.
Under both Illinois and federal law, neither equitable tolling nor equitable estoppel applies to statutes of limitations that are jurisdictional rather than procedural. Cada v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 920 F.2d 446, 451 (7th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2916, 115 L.Ed.2d 1079 (1991); Hardin v. City Title & Escrow Co., 797 F.2d 1037, 1040-41 (D.C.Cir.1986); Fredman Bros. Furniture Co. v. Department of Revenue, 109 Ill.2d 202, 93 Ill.Dec. 360, 362-63, 486 N.E.2d 893, 895-96 (1985); Charleston Community Unit School Dist. No. 1 v. Illinois Educ. Labor Rel. Bd., 203 Ill.App.3d 619, 149 Ill.Dec. 53, 55, 561 N.E.2d 331, 333 (1990), appeal denied, 136 Ill.2d 542, 153 Ill.Dec. 371, 567 N.E.2d 329 (1991). Some statutes of limitations are jurisdictional and cannot be equitably extended: "[I]f the right being asserted is one unknown to the common law, the time limitation is an inherent element of the right and of the power of the tribunal to hear the matter." Charleston Community, 149 Ill.Dec. at 55, 561 N.E.2d at 333. Other statutes of limitations are merely procedural: "[I]f the right upon which the request for relief is based is a common law right, the time limitation is merely a procedural matter not affecting the jurisdiction of the tribunal." Id. Thus, a second issue antecedent to the potential application of equitable tolling or equitable estoppel is whether the statute of limitations at issue in this case is jurisdictional or...
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