State v. Young
Decision Date | 23 May 1983 |
Docket Number | No. 81SC354,81SC354 |
Citation | 665 P.2d 108 |
Parties | The STATE of Colorado, and the Colorado State Patrol, a Division of the Department of Highways, Petitioners, v. Leigh Ann YOUNG, Respondent. |
Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
David R. Brougham, Hall & Evans, Denver, for petitioners.
Ted L. Hansen, Rollie R. Rogers, Denver, for respondent.
We granted certiorari to review the judgment of the Court of Appeals in Young v. State, 642 P.2d 18 (Colo.App.1981), reversing the Boulder County District Court's dismissal of a negligence claim against the State of Colorado and the Colorado State Patrol for failure to file timely notice of a claim under section 24-10-109(1), C.R.S.1973 . We affirm.
A Colorado State Patrol officer stopped Leigh Ann Young on Interstate 25 between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs on October 9, 1977, gave her a speeding ticket, and ordered her to appear in the Douglas County Court on November 29, 1977. When Young contacted the Douglas County Court on November 28, she was informed that there were no charges pending against her. She was told the same thing the following day, and consequently did not appear in court as ordered. Unknown to Young, the summons and complaint mistakenly had been filed in the El Paso County Court instead of the Douglas County Court.
On March 1, 1978, an officer of the Lafayette Police Department stopped Young for a license plate violation. The officer discovered through a routine radio check that a warrant had been issued for Young's arrest in El Paso County. The officer arrested Young, advised her that the arrest was based on the warrant from El Paso County, and placed her in the Lafayette City Jail before transferring her to the Boulder County Jail, where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell. Young was confined approximately four hours before she was released on bond.
When released, Young was advised to appear in the El Paso County Court on March 17, 1978. On March 15, Young called the clerk of the El Paso County Court to find out the exact time of her appearance. The clerk of the court read Young the original traffic summons and advised her that the summons directed her to appear in the Douglas County Court. Later, the El Paso County Court Clerk called Young and advised her that the case was being dismissed and that she need not appear.
On March 17, 1978, Young received a copy of the docket sheet from the El Paso County Court which noted that the case was dismissed because it had been filed in the wrong county. On June 13, 1978, Young notified the defendants of her intent to file a claim against them. Young's subsequent complaint charged that the State of Colorado and the Colorado State Patrol negligently misfiled the summons and complaint in El Paso County Court, thereby causing her to be wrongfully arrested in Lafayette on the outstanding warrant.
The defendants moved to dismiss on the grounds that Young had failed to comply with the notice provisions of section 24-10-109, C.R.S.1973, which provided in relevant part:
"(b) A concise statement of the basis of the claim, including the date, time, place, and circumstances of the act, omission, or event complained of; ..." 1
The district court granted the motion on the ground that Young incurred and discovered her injury on March 1, 1978, the date on which she was wrongfully arrested. Young argued that she had not discovered her injury until the receipt of the El Paso County Court docket sheet on March 17, 1978, when she first learned of the incorrect filing of the summons and complaint. The district court disagreed, finding that Young's receipt of the docket sheet only informed her of the rationale behind her March 1 arrest. The district court concluded that the 90-day notice limitation began to run on March 1, and because Young did not give notice to the defendants until June 13, her complaint was barred.
The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the 90-day period began to run on March 17, 1978, the date Young discovered the basis of her claim. The Court of Appeals noted that section 24-10-109(2)(b), C.R.S.1973, required that the notice contain a concise statement of the basis of the claim. It concluded that logically this could not be done until both the injury and its legal basis were perceived. 642 P.2d at 20.
Thus, the Court of Appeals determined that Young had filed timely notice of her claim under section 24-10-109(1): "The test to be used by a trier of fact, in situations where the knowledge of the injury and the knowledge of causal factors of the injury are not simultaneously perceivable, is when the injured party discovered, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence, should have discovered the injury and its basis as a claim." Id.
The "discovery of the injury" language in section 24-10-109 incorporates a notice concept commonly employed in tort litigation. See City of Aurora v. Bechtel Corp., 599 F.2d 382 (10th Cir.1979) ( ); Exnicious v. United States, 563 F.2d 418, 420 (10th Cir.1977) ( ); Owens v. Brochner, 172 Colo. 525, 474 P.2d 603 (1974) ( ). 2 While the requirement of prompt notice serves important and particular purposes in actions against governmental entities, 3 the discovery rule does not hinder unduly the effectuation of those purposes. This is especially true where, as here, the notice period is extremely short. Moreover, as this court has recognized, the discovery rule furthers the interest of justice in not foreclosing access to a forum to an injured plaintiff who may not reasonably "understand or appreciate that actionable harm has been done him." Owens v. Brochner, 474 P.2d at 606.
The defendants argue that this case should be controlled by Montgomery v. Polk County, 278 N.W.2d 911 (Iowa 1979). In Montgomery, the Iowa Supreme Court held that the discovery rule did not apply to cases under the Iowa Municipal Tort Claims Act, Iowa Code § 613A (1977). The argument is unpersuasive because the Iowa statutory provision differs from section 24-10-109 in two significant respects. First, Iowa Code § 613A.8 requires notice "within sixty days after the alleged wrongful death, loss or injury"--it does not contain the "discovery of the injury" language of section 24-10-109. Second, in contrast to section 24-10-109(2)(b), the Iowa provision expressly relieves the claimant of the duty to provide the details which make out the basis of the claim. Iowa Code § 613A.8 (1977). In light of these differences, the defendants' citation of Montgomery is inapposite.
This court found application of the discovery rule appropriate in a slightly different factual context in Brady v. City and County of Denver, 181 Colo. 218, 508 P.2d 1254 (1973). In Brady, a driver who was sued for personal injuries he caused in a collision sought indemnification from the city for Denver General Hospital's alleged negligence in aggravating the pedestrian's condition. We held that the 90-day notice required of claimants against a city by C.R.S.1963, 139-35-1(1) did not commence at the time the secondary injury actually occurred. Rather, the notice period began to run at the time the driver received knowledge of the secondary injury which was the basis of his indemnification claim. 508 P.2d at 1256.
The logic of Owens v. Brochner and Brady applies here. Young's claim that the defendants negligently misfiled the original traffic complaint and summons could not have been brought until Young discovered the alleged negligence upon receipt of the docket sheet on March 17, 1978. The district court's dismissal of Young's complaint appears to be based upon an assumption that Young's case is grounded in the intentional tort of false arrest. Such is not the case. As Young's amended complaint sets out, she is proceeding against the State of Colorado and the Colorado State Patrol in negligence, not against the City of Lafayette or its police department for false arrest. Were this a cause of action against Lafayette for false arrest, the result might be different.
As the Court of Appeals correctly recognized, section 24-10-109(1) does not allow an aggrieved party to wait to file its action until all of the elements of the claim mature. That recognition is the underpinning for the Court of Appeals' decision in Carroll v. Regional Transportation District, 638 P.2d 816 (Colo.App.1981) (cert. denied, December 28, 1981). In Carroll, the plaintiffs' action for malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional harm, and outrageous conduct was dismissed for failure to give notice within the period prescribed by section 24-10-109. The plaintiffs, who were falsely accused of stealing property from a company adjacent to the...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Trinity Broadcasting of Denver, Inc. v. City of Westminster
...so, each item of information listed in section 24-10-109(2)." Woodsmall, 800 P.2d at 69. Trinity relies on our decision in State v. Young, 665 P.2d 108 (Colo.1983), in arguing that the 180-day notice period should not begin to run until Maury informed Trinity that there was water in the soi......
-
Dominguez v. Babcock
...document, because plaintiff did not learn of its existence until February 1981. Young v. State, 642 P.2d 18 (Colo.App.1981), aff'd, 665 P.2d 108 (Colo.1983). In regard to the September 4, 1980, document, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on the ground that plai......
-
Zurick v. First American Title Ins. Co., 86-2255
...has since been followed or cited by the Colorado courts. Morris, 720 P.2d at 997; McKinley, 693 P.2d at 1025-26; see also State v. Young, 665 P.2d 108, 109 (Colo.1983). The second relevant case from this circuit is DeGette v. Mine Co. Restaurant, Inc., 751 F.2d 1143 (10th Cir.1985), which c......
-
Regional Transp. Dist. v. Lopez, 95SC46
...claimant discovers the basis in legal theory for his or her claim. The legislature was responding to this court's holding in State v. Young, 665 P.2d 108 (Colo.1983), which, the amendments' proponents contended, undermined the intent of the legislature. 12 See Hearing on H.B. 1196 Before th......
-
Amendments to the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act
...28 and 29 and accompanying text, supra. 43. CRS § 24-10-106.5, as added by H.B. 1196. 44. CRS § 24-10-108, as amended by H.B. 1196. 45. 665 P.2d 108, 111 (Colo. 1983). 46. 664 P.2d 709, 711 (Colo. 1983). 47. CRS §§ 24-10-109(1) and -118(1)(a), as amended by H.B. 1196. 48. CRS § 24-10-109(1)......