Turner v. Kight
| Decision Date | 19 December 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 736, Sept. Term, 2006.,736, Sept. Term, 2006. |
| Citation | 938 A.2d 863,178 Md. App. 1 |
| Parties | Sherri A. TURNER v. Raymond M. KIGHT, et al. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Ralph T. Byrd, Laytonsville, for Appellant.
Patricia P. Via, Rockville, and Cynthia Peltzman, Baltimore, for Appellee.
Panel: JAMES R. EYLER, KRAUSER, LAWRENCE F. RODOWSKY, (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.
Title 28 U.S.C. § 1367 provides that the statute of limitations applicable to a state claim pending in federal court is "tolled while the claim is pending and for a period of 30 days after it is dismissed unless State law provides for a longer tolling period." But, what does "tolling" mean in the context of § 1367? That is the central question posed by this appeal.
According to appellant Sherri L. Turner, § 1367 expressly suspends the pertinent statute of limitations while a state claim is pending in federal court, and, in so doing, it impliedly grants the claimant the remainder of that period plus the 30 days specified by § 1367 to file the same claim in state court after dismissal of the federal action. But appellees Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Sheriff, the Director of the Montgomery County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and certain members of the Corrections Department and the Sheriff's Office, take a narrower view of "tolling" in § 1367. That provision, they argue, does not suspend the running of the statute of limitations, but only its effect. As a result, the pertinent statute of limitations continues to run during the federal action, leaving the claimant, upon its expiration, with statutory grant of 30 days from the date of the dismissal of the federal action to file suit in state court.
In determining the meaning of "tolling," we are asked to decide, in short, whether § 1367 suspends the running of the applicable state statute of limitations or merely the effect of that statute during the pendency of the federal case. If we decide that tolling suspends only the effect of such a statute, but not its advancement, we are further asked to determine whether the 30-day grace period, provided by § 1367 for filing a state action, begins to run at the conclusion of the federal district court proceedings or, if appealed, at the conclusion of the federal appellate process.
Because we conclude that § 1367 tolls the consequence, but not the progression, of a state statute of limitations, and that the 30-day period provided by § 1367 begins to run at the end of the federal district court proceedings, we shall affirm the judgment of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County dismissing the instant case as time-barred.
Since only the procedural history of this case is relevant to this appeal, we need not recount the circumstances underlying the numerous allegations of official misconduct set forth in appellant's complaint. In sum, appellant claims that she was mistreated by members of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and of the County's correctional department on April 21, 2000, during her arrest by the former and detention by the latter. That purported mistreatment prompted her to bring, on May 15, 2001, an action under 42 U.S.C. § 19831 in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland against Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Sheriff, the Director of the Montgomery County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and certain members of the Corrections Department and the Sheriff's Office.2 She maintained that her constitutional rights had been violated in the course of her arrest and detention.
To her complaint, appellant later added state common law tort claims, such as intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence, as well as purported violations of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. Her suit was cut short, however, when the federal district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants as to some of appellant's federal claims, dismissed others, and then declined to exercise jurisdiction over her state claims.
On April 5, 2002, appellant moved for reconsideration by the federal district court of her federal claims but not of her state claims. On August 20, 2003, the federal district court granted that motion as to a single federal claim. But that scant victory proved short-lived, as that claim was subsequently disposed of on a motion for summary judgment. On September 2, 2003, appellant filed a second motion for reconsideration, which was denied by the federal district court on December 22, 2003.3
Three weeks later, on January 15, 2004, appellant noted an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, challenging the lower federal court's rejection of her federal claims. Nearly one year later, on January 7, 2005, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision of federal district court as to each of appellant's federal claims, and, two months after that, on March 8, 2005, it denied appellant's petition for a rehearing en banc.
On March 11, 2005, three years after the federal district court declined to exercise jurisdiction over appellant's state law claims and almost five years after appellant's arrest and detention, appellant filed a complaint reasserting her state law claims in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. Appellees responded by claiming that appellant's complaint was now barred by the applicable statute of limitations. The circuit court agreed with appellees and dismissed appellant's complaint as time-barred. It thereafter denied her motion for reconsideration. This appeal followed.
Title 28 U.S.0 § 1367 states in part:
(a) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) or as expressly provided otherwise by Federal statute, in any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction, the district courts shall have supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution. Such supplemental jurisdiction shall include claims that involve the joinder or intervention of additional parties.
(b) In any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction founded solely on section 1332 of this title, the district courts shall not have supplemental jurisdiction under subsection (a) over claims by plaintiffs against persons made parties under Rule 14, 19, 20, or 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, or over claims by persons proposed to be joined as plaintiffs under Rule 19 of such rules, or seeking to intervene as plaintiffs under Rule 24 of such rules, when exercising supplemental jurisdiction over such claims would be inconsistent with the jurisdictional requirements of section 1332.
(3) the district court has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction, or
(4) in exceptional circumstances, there are other compelling reasons for declining jurisdiction.
(d) The period of limitations for any claim asserted under subsection (a), and for any other claim in the same action that is voluntarily dismissed at the same time as or after the dismissal of the claim under subsection (a), shall be tolled while the claim is pending and for a period of 30 days after it is dismissed unless State law provides for a longer tolling period.
Thus, in accordance with § 1367, appellant's state claims were tolled while her action was pending in federal court. But what does "tolling" mean in the context of subsection (d) of that statute, the central question of this appeal? Appellant argues that it could only mean that the state three-year statute of limitations applicable to her claims was suspended during the pendency of her federal suit and that, consequently, the unspent portion of the statute's limitations period should have been tacked onto the statute's 30-day grace period in calculating whether her state claims were timely filed. Because she filed her claim in the federal district court on May 15, 2001, about one year and three weeks into the applicable statute of limitations period, she maintains that she had about one year and 49 weeks, plus the statutory 30-day grace period, to file her state claims after the dismissal of her federal suit, which, she insists, occurred on December 22, 2003, when the federal district court denied her second motion for reconsideration. Indeed, according to appellant's math, she had almost until the end of 2005 to file her state claims in the circuit court. And, since she filed her state claims on March 11, 2005, they were, she asserts, timely filed.
The United States Supreme Court has not addressed the "tolling" issue of § 1367(d) and no single interpretation of that term has emerged from those lower federal and state courts that have. But, it is fair to say that, of the few federal and state courts that have considered this question, a majority have held that § 1367(d) tolls the effect, but not the advancement, of any limitations period pertaining to state claims that are awaiting decision in federal court. See Williams Elecs. Games, Inc. v. Garrity, 479 F.3d 904, 907 (7th Cir.2007) (); Long v. Bando Mfg. of Am., Inc., 201 F.3d 754, 761 (6th Cir.2000) (...
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Turner v. Knight
...in a U.S. District Court, the period is extended until 30 days after dismissal of the claims by the District Court. Turner v. Kight, 178 Md.App. 1, 938 A.2d 863 (2007). We granted certiorari to consider three (1) Whether § 1367(d) serves (i) to suspend the running of limitations during the ......
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