Everett v. Cobb County School District

138 F.3d 1407, 8 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 65, 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 7490, 1998 WL 176671
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedApril 16, 1998
Docket97-8076
StatusPublished
Cited by80 cases

This text of 138 F.3d 1407 (Everett v. Cobb County School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Everett v. Cobb County School District, 138 F.3d 1407, 8 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 65, 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 7490, 1998 WL 176671 (11th Cir. 1998).

Opinion

GODBOLD, Senior Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Cynthia Everett appeals from the dismissal of her claims against the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State College, and Cobb County School District alleging that she was discriminated against because of her disability in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Because we find her claims to be barred by the applicable statute of limitations we affirm the district court’s judgment in favor of the defendants.

I. Factual and Procedural History

Cynthia Everett is a person with disabilities as defined by the ADA She has multiple sclerosis and bilateral SI joint dysfunction, and although she can walk for periods of time using a cane, she relies on an- electrically-powered scooter for mobility.

Everett attended Kennesaw State College from 1991 to 1994 to obtain a degree in Early Childhood Education. During the spring quarter of 1994, she began her student teaching assignment at Kennesaw Elementary School in the classroom of Nancy Hardy. Everett alleges that Hardy would not allow her to use her scooter in the classroom. Everett also alleges that Hardy made frequent comments concerning Everett’s disability and expressed her doubts on whether the disability would allow her to be a good teacher. Some time in May Hardy assigned Everett a grade of Unsatisfactory (U) for the student teaching assignment, stating that to pass Everett would be to admit that she was capable of teaching in any situation.

On May 31, 1994 Kennesaw State faculty decided to change Everett’s grade from a U to an Incomplete (I) and allow her to repeat the student teaching program the next year. On June 6, 1994 Everett received a letter from the same Board confirming that the May 31 decision would stand and that she would be assigned an I.

On June 6, 1996 Everett filed a complaint against the defendants alleging discrimination because of her disability in violation of Title II of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. She also included state law claims alleging breach of contract. The defendants moved to dismiss all of Everett’s federal claims as time barred. The district court granted the, motion, finding that Georgia’s two-year statute of limitations applied to all of Everett’s claim and that she had failed to file suit within two years of the discriminatory acts complained of.

Everett filed this appeal, asserting that Georgia’s two-year, personal injury statute of limitations is inapplicable to claims brought under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act, and that regardless of which limitations period this court chooses to apply her action was timely filed.

II. Discussion

A. Standard of review

We review a district court’s dismissal of a complaint de novo. In doing so we view the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Welch v. Laney, 57 F.3d 1004, 1008 (11th Cir.1995).

*1409 B. The appropriate statute of limitations

The issue of the applicable statute of limitations under Title II of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is an issue of first impression for this circuit. Because causes of action brought under Title II of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act are essentially identical, we will consider the two statutes simultaneously and .apply the same statute of limitations to both. See Pottgen. v. Missouri St. High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 40 F.3d 926, 930 (8th Cir.1994) (stating that interpretations of the ADA must be consistent with interpretations of the Rehabilitation Act).

Where a federal statute does not contain a limitations period courts should look to the most analogous state statute of limitations. Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266-67, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 1942, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985). Most civil rights actions are essentially claims to vindicate injuries to personal rights. See Goodman v. Lukens Steel Co., 482 U.S. 656, 661, 107 S.Ct. 2617, 2621, 96 L.Ed.2d 572 (1987)(action for discrimination is one for “fundamental injury to the individual rights of a person”); Wilson, 471 U.S. at 276, 105 S.Ct. at 1947 (claims which allege discrimination are best characterized as personal injury actions).

Based on this guidance from the Supreme Court most circuits that have adopted a statute of limitations for ADA or Rehabilitation Act claims have looked to the state’s limitations period for personal injury actions. See, e.g., Soignier v. American Bd. of Plastic Surgery, 92 F.3d 547, 551 (7th Cir.1996)(dis-triet court correctly applied Illinois’ two-year statute of limitations for personal injuries as the most analogous limitations period for an ADA claim), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 117 S.Ct. 771, 136 L.Ed.2d 716 (1997); Baker v. Board of Regents of State of Kan., 991 F.2d 628, 632 (10th Cir.1993) (analogizing Rehabilitation Act claims to personal injury claims); Morse v. University of Vermont, 973 F.2d 122, 127 (2d Cir.1992)(“we now hold that actions under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act are governed by the state statute of limitations applicable to personal injury actions”); Hickey v. Irving Indep. Sch. Dist., 976 F.2d 980, 982-83 (5th Cir.1992).

Only the Fourth Circuit has declined to apply the state personal injury statute of limitations. In Wolsky v. Medical College of Hampton Roads, that court held that because the state of Virginia had passed a state anti-discrimination statute that was identical to the federal Rehabilitation Act, the statute of limitations contained in that statute should be applied as the most analogous. Wolsky v. Medical College of Hampton Roads, 1 F.3d 222, 225 (4th Cir.1993) (“Given that the Virginia Act is modeled after the Rehabilitation Act, we break with the conclusions of' the other circuits to apply a personal injury statute of limitations”). Because Georgia has not passed a state law identical to the Rehabilitation Act from which to borrow a limitations period, we follow the lead of the other circuits that have decided this issue and apply Georgia’s two-year statute of limitations period for personal injury actions. See O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 (1982).

Everett assertions that this court should apply the twenty-year statute of limitations found at O.C.G.A.

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Bluebook (online)
138 F.3d 1407, 8 Am. Disabilities Cas. (BNA) 65, 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 7490, 1998 WL 176671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/everett-v-cobb-county-school-district-ca11-1998.