Bell v. Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District

301 P.3d 901, 353 Or. 535, 2013 WL 2127255, 2013 Ore. LEXIS 327
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMay 16, 2013
DocketCC 090913232; CA A145225; SC S060373
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 301 P.3d 901 (Bell v. Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bell v. Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District, 301 P.3d 901, 353 Or. 535, 2013 WL 2127255, 2013 Ore. LEXIS 327 (Or. 2013).

Opinions

[537]*537BREWER, J.

The question in this case is whether plaintiff’s survival action against a public body must be brought within two years or three years of the alleged injury. Either of two statutes supplies the answer. On the one hand, ORS 30.275(9) provides that, “notwithstanding any other *** statute providing a limitation on the commencement of an action,” a tort action against a public body must be filed within two years after the alleged loss or injury. On the other hand, ORS 30.075(1) provides that survival actions for personal injuries must be brought within three years of the alleged loss or injury. The determinative inquiry is whether ORS 30.075(1) constitutes a “statute providing a limitation on the commencement of an action.” If it does, then it falls within the notwithstanding clause of ORS 30.275(9), and the two-year limitation period set out in that statute applies. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that ORS 30.075(1) does constitute a “statute providing a limitation on the commencement of an action,” thus triggering the two-year limitation period of ORS 30.275(9).

We take the undisputed facts and some of the procedural history of the case from the opinion of the Court of Appeals.

“On September 4, 2007, decedent allegedly sustained personal injuries while disembarking from a bus operated by [defendant]. Decedent died, on September 9, 2008, from causes unrelated to the bus accident. On September 18, 2009 — more than two years, but less than three years, after the bus incident — plaintiff, decedent’s personal representative, filed a complaint alleging that [defendant] had negligently injured decedent and seeking damages for the alleged personal injuries.
“[Defendant] moved to dismiss, ORCP 21 A(9), contending that plaintiff’s action was barred under ORS 30.275(9) the statute of limitations for claims under the Oregon Tort Claims Act (OTCA), ORS 30.260 to 30.300.
“In response, plaintiff asserted that, given decedent’s intervening death, the complaint was subject not to the [538]*538two-year limitation of ORS 30.275(9) but, instead, to the three-year period described in ORS 30.075(1).

Bell v. Tri-Met, 247 Or App 666, 668-69, 271 P3d 138 (2012) (footnotes omitted). The trial court concluded that ORS 30.275(1) established a limitation on the commencement of a survival action for personal injuries that is superseded, in a tort action against a public body, by the two-year limit set out in ORS 30.275(9). Accordingly, the court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss on the ground that plaintiff had commenced the action more than two years after the injury-producing incident.

Plaintiff appealed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that, “with respect to an action for personal injury brought by a decedent’s personal representative against a public body, the two-year limitation for the commencement of an action in ORS 30.275(9) precludes the application of the three-year limitation provided in ORS 30.075(1).” Bell, 247 Or App at 675. Because it had concluded in an earlier decision that ORS 30.075(1) is a “statute providing a limitation on the commencement of an action,” Giulietti v. Oncology Associates of Oregon, 178 Or App 260, 36 P3d 510 (2001), the court held that ORS 30.075(1) fell within the scope of the notwithstanding clause of ORS 30.275(9).

On review, plaintiff contends that the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that ORS 30.275(9) precludes application of the three-year limitation period set out in ORS 30.075(1). According to plaintiff, that three-year period merely extends or tolls the underlying two-year limitation period for personal injury claims set out in ORS 12.110 in circumstances where the decedent has died during that period without bringing an action. Therefore, plaintiff urges, ORS 30.075(1) does not, itself, constitute a limitation on the commencement of an action that is subject to the notwithstanding clause of ORS 30.275(9).

In support of that argument, plaintiff relies on this court’s decision in Baker v. City of Lakeside, 343 Or 70, 83, 164 P3d 259 (2007). At issue in Baker was whether the notwithstanding clause in ORS 30.275(9) applied to ORS 12.020(2), a statute that permits service of process to relate [539]*539back to the date on which the complaint was filed.1 We held that it did not, because “the notwithstanding clause in ORS 30.275(9) applies only to those provisions of ORS chapter 12 and other statutes that provide a limitation on the commencement of an action,” and ORS 12.020 was not such a statute. Baker, 343 Or at 83 (emphasis added). In reaching that conclusion, we discussed in detail the legislative history of ORS 30.275(9). Id. at 77-82. In summary, we observed that

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
301 P.3d 901, 353 Or. 535, 2013 WL 2127255, 2013 Ore. LEXIS 327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-tri-county-metropolitan-transportation-district-or-2013.