Stockstill v. State
| Decision Date | 18 September 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 2002-CA-01047-SCT.,2002-CA-01047-SCT. |
| Citation | 854 So.2d 1017 |
| Parties | Gaye Nell STOCKSTILL and James Ray Blanchard, Sr. v. STATE of Mississippi, The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and The Pearl River Basin Development District. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
James Kenneth Wetzel, Gulfport, for appellant.
Roger Googe, for appellee.
EN BANC.
¶ 1. Gaye Nell Stockstill and James Ray Blanchard, Sr., appeal from the judgment of the Circuit Court of Pearl River County dismissing their complaint against the State of Mississippi and several of its agencies (collectively "the State") as barred by the statute of limitations. Because this suit was filed after the expiration of the controlling one-year statute of limitations for the Mississippi Tort Claims Act (MTCA), Miss.Code Ann. §§ 11-46-1 to -23 (Rev.2002 & Supp.2003), we find the circuit court properly dismissed the suit and affirm.
¶ 2. While canoeing on the Pearl River with a friend, James Ray Blanchard, Jr., drowned on December 28, 1998, near the site of a completed project co-sponsored by the United States and the State of Mississippi which was designed to restore the water flow of the Pearl River. Stockstill and Blanchard filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on March 29, 2000, against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the State, and several agencies of the State, alleging damages arising out of their son's drowning. Because proper notice was provided to the State, the tolling provision of the MTCA applied. On May 12, 2000, the State and its agencies filed a motion to dismiss the federal suit based upon their right under the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution not to be sued in federal court. The motion was granted, and the suit was dismissed without prejudice on March 9, 2001.
¶ 3. On October 3, 2001, Stockstill and Blanchard filed this present civil action in the Circuit Court of Pearl River County. The State and its agencies filed a motion to dismiss on November 9, 2001. On June 20, 2002, the circuit court dismissed the suit finding the applicable one-year statute of limitations had expired. Stockstill and Blanchard appeal and raise the following issues for this Court's consideration:
¶ 4. We apply a de novo standard when reviewing the granting of a Miss. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion. Arnona v. Smith, 749 So.2d 63, 65-66 (Miss.1999). As such, we sit in the same position as did the trial court. The scope of review of a motion to dismiss is that the allegations in the complaint must be taken as true, and the motion should not be granted unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff will be unable to prove any set of facts in support of her claim. Brewer v. Burdette, 768 So.2d 920, 922 (Miss.2000). See also Overstreet v. Merlos, 570 So.2d 1196, 1197 (Miss.1990)
; Grantham v. Miss. Dep't of Corrections, 522 So.2d 219, 220 (Miss. 1988).
I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW IN HOLDING THAT THE WRONGFUL DEATH CLAIM AGAINST THE STATE AND ITS AGENCIES WAS BARRED BY THE ONE-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS EXPRESSED IN MISS. CODE ANN. § 11-46-11.
II. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW IN HOLDING THAT MISS. CODE ANN. § 15-1-69, THE "SAVINGS STATUTE" DID NOT APPLY TO THE STATE AND ITS AGENCIES.
¶ 5. In this case of first impression under the MTCA, Stockstill and Blanchard argue that the savings clause in Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-69 (Rev.2003)1 applies to the MTCA, thus tolling the exclusive one-year statute of limitations found in Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-11 (Rev.2002). However, we find that this result is at odds with the texts of Miss.Code Ann. §§ 11-46-11 and 15-1-1 (Rev.2003) and this Court's repeated holdings that the MTCA indubitably mandates a one-year statute of limitation be applied to any and all actions brought under the Act.
¶ 6. Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-11(3) specifically states:
The limitations period provided herein shall control and shall be exclusive in all actions subject to and brought under the provisions of this chapter, notwithstanding the nature of the claim, the label or other characterization the claimant may use to describe it, or the provisions of any other statute of limitations which would otherwise govern the type of claim or legal theory if it were not subject to or brought under the provisions of this chapter.
(emphasis added). Through the strict language of the statute, the legislative intent is clear on the controlling statute of limitations.
¶ 7. Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-1 provides further guidance that § 15-1-69 does not apply to the MTCA. Section 15-1-1 reads:
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any suit which is or shall be limited by any statute to be brought within a shorter time than is prescribed in this chapter, and such suit shall be brought within the time that may be limited by such statute.
(emphasis added). Because the MTCA has a one-year statute of limitation which is significantly shorter than the catch all three-year statute of limitation, the one-year statute of limitation found in § 11-46-11 is controlling.
¶ 8. Because we find that pursuant to §§ 11-46-11 and 15-1-1, § 15-1-69 does not apply to the MTCA, it is also worthy to note that non-tort claims act cases, e.g., Boston v. Hartford Acc. & Indem. Co., 822 So.2d 239 (Miss.2002),
and Norman v. Bucklew, 684 So.2d 1246 (Miss.1996), are not controlling as to the applicability of § 15-1-69.
¶ 9. Up until 2000, this Court had continuously held that Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-59 (Rev.2003), the minors savings clause, did not toll the one-year statute of limitation of the MTCA. In Marcum v. Hancock County School Dist., 741 So.2d 234 (Miss. 1999), a seventeen-year-old minor filed suit by and through her parents against the school district after suffering injuries while riding on the school bus. Id. at 235. However, the suit was filed one year and nine months after the alleged accident. Id. The circuit court dismissed the suit finding the one-year statute of limitations had expired. Id. On appeal Marcum argued the MTCA's one-year statute of limitations was tolled by the minors savings clause. This Court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court, holding:
¶ 10. In Hays v. Lafayette County School Dist., 759 So.2d 1144 (Miss.1999), a minor, by and through her mother, sued the school district after suffering injuries while riding on the school bus. Id. at 1144. The complaint was filed two years and six months after the alleged accident. Id. The circuit court granted the district's motion to dismiss after finding the suit was barred by the one-year statute of limitations. Id. at 1144-45. As in Marcum, Hays argued the one-year statute of limitations of the MTCA was tolled by the minors savings clause. Finding that the Legislature had contemplated the procedural limitation of a one-year statute of limitations, this Court held again that the minors savings clause did not toll the one-year statute of limitations in § 11-46-11. Id. at 1148.
The savings clause of § 15-1-59 does apply to a wide range of actions within that chapter, which shows the careful considerations of the Legislature in carving out exceptions under that Act and others. This logic is understandable with regard to discovery of negligence in latent injury cases, where a physical manifestation of injury may be delayed. But the reasoning behind a specific statute of limitations for the MTCA reflects the Legislature's intent to limit waiver of sovereign immunity under Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-5 (Supp. 1999), which sets the maximum limit of potential recovery by a plaintiff over a gradual time span.
¶ 11. However, during the 2000 session, the Legislature chose to amend Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-11 by adding subsection (4), which stated:
From and after May 15, 2000,2 if any person entitled to bring any action under this chapter shall, at the time at which the cause of action accrued, be under the disability of infancy or unsoundness of mind, he may bring the action within the time allowed in this section after his disability shall be removed as provided by law. The savings clause in favor of persons under disability of unsoundness of mind shall never extend longer than twenty-one (21) years.
By affirmative legislative action, the MTCA now contains a provision by way of the 2000 and 2002 amendments which effectively creates a minors savings clause thus tolling for minors the running of the applicable limitations period found in subsection (3).
¶ 12. In his...
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