Lesh v. Allstate Insurance

723 F. Supp. 624, 5 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 51, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12514, 1989 WL 123185
CourtDistrict Court, D. Wyoming
DecidedOctober 20, 1989
DocketNo. C89-0086J
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 723 F. Supp. 624 (Lesh v. Allstate Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Wyoming primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lesh v. Allstate Insurance, 723 F. Supp. 624, 5 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 51, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12514, 1989 WL 123185 (D. Wyo. 1989).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

JOHNSON, District Judge.

In this diversity action, the plaintiff, Roy Lesh, seeks damages for personal injuries against the defendant Allstate Insurance Company. He also seeks damages for an alleged breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Additionally, his wife, Maureen Lesh, asserts a claim against the defendant for an alleged loss of consortium.

In February 1977 Roy Lesh became employed as an adjuster and regional claims representative by the defendant Allstate. Although initially employed as a resident adjuster, he was eventually promoted to the position of unit claims manager. He alleges that from December 1980 through December 1984, he suffered personal injuries in the form of emotional and mental stress caused by his work load with Allstate. These problems first manifested themselves in April 1981 when Lesh was hospitalized for an apparent heart attack, later diagnosed as severe stress and anxiety. After seeking medical attention, the plaintiff was advised by his treating physicians that his stress was work related. For example, one of the plaintiff’s treating physicians, a Dr. Motl, wrote a letter to the defendant informing Allstate that the plaintiff was suffering from job-related anxiety episodes. He recommended in that letter that the plaintiff be given a three-month period of medical leave. Letter from Dr. John M. Motl to Allstate Insurance Co. (Sept. 22, 1983) (discussing Roy Lesh’s job-related anxiety condition). In December 1984, the plaintiff suffered another severe anxiety attack. This allegedly was caused by the defendant’s failure to accommodate the recommendations of the plaintiff’s treating physicians that Allstate provide the plaintiff with a reduced work load. Unable to function at work, the plaintiff took a medical leave of absence in December 1984 and never returned to work with Allstate. On June 1, 1985, he resigned his position.

The defendant has moved for summary judgment against the plaintiffs’ negligence claims on the ground that they are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. In Wyoming a negligence action must be brought within four years after the date it accrues. Ogle v. Caterpillar Tractor Company, 716 P.2d 334, 337 (Wyo. 1986); Wyo.Stat. § l-3-105(a)(iv)(C) (June 1988). Because Wyoming is a discovery state, the statute of limitations for negli[626]*626gence actions begins to run when the plaintiff knows or has reason to know he has a cause of action. Olson v. A.H. Robins, 696 P.2d 1294, 1297 (Wyo.1985); Anderson v. Bauer, 681 P.2d 1316, 1321 (Wyo.1984). The statute of limitations begins to run as to a plaintiffs claim where plaintiff knows or reasonably should know that he has suffered an injury and knows or reasonably should know that the cause of that injury was job related stress. Olson, 696 P.2d at 1299. In this case, the plaintiff believed as early as 1981 that his anxiety attacks were job-related. Depo. of Roy Lesh at 196-97. The plaintiffs physicians also advised him as early as September 1983 that he was suffering job-related stress anxiety. Because the plaintiff filed this action on April 5, 1989, the defendant argues that the negligence claims are time-barred.

The plaintiff, however, argues that the court should recognize an exception to the four-year rule based on the “special relationship between an employer and an employee.” For two reasons he argues that the statute should not begin to run until this relationship ceases. First, he argues that during the course of the relationship a continuing tort was occurring, which can only cease upon termination of the employer-employee relationship. Second, “it would be absurd to require an employee to sue his employer” during the existence of the relationship. He offers no reasons why this requirement is absurd. Presumably plaintiff would suggest that an employer would be inclined to discharge an employee for filing a personal injury action and would be inclined to retaliate in other ways as well.

Without providing any support, the plaintiff asserts that the statute of limitations does not begin to run for a Wyoming employee until the employment relationship ceases, so long as the injury-producing condition continues. The court finds, however, that the continuing tort rule is inapplicable here. That rule states that “ ‘[wjhen a tort involves continuing injury, the cause of action accrues, and the limitation period begins to run, at the time the tortious conduct ceases.’ ” Page v. United States, 729 F.2d 818, 821 (D.C.Cir.1984) (quoting Donaldson v. O’Connor, 493 F.2d 507, 529 (5th Cir.1974), vacated on other grounds, 422 U.S. 563, 95 S.Ct. 2486, 45 L.Ed.2d 396 (1975)). The rule is inapplicable where a plaintiff has discovered his injury prior to the cessation of the tortious conditions that caused the injury. See Kichline v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 800 F.2d 356, 359-60 (3d Cir.1986). The continuing tort rule does not apply where a plaintiff has identified the injury and its cause before his employment is terminated. In such a case, “the discovery of injury rather than the cessation of work ... marked the beginning of the limitations.” Id. Thus, the continuing tortious conduct of an employer “will not stop the ticking of the limitations clock begun when plaintiff obtained requisite information. On discovering an injury and its cause, a claimant must choose to sue or forego that remedy.” Id.

In support of his second reason why the statute of limitations should begin to run upon cessation of the employer-employee relationship, the plaintiff relies on Wyoming cases involving medical malpractice, which has a shorter, two-year statute of limitations. See Wyo.Stat. § l-3-107(a) (June 1988). In medical malpractice cases, the court has applied the continuous treatment rule to hold that this particular statute, which is very short in duration, begins to run on termination of the physician-patient relationship. The rule is based on the rationale that, in a medical malpractice case, no single treatment necessarily caused the harm and a physician should therefore be given an “opportunity to correct the error before harm ensues____” Echols v. Keeler, 735 P.2d 730, 732 (Wyo. 1987). The court sees no reason to extend a rule developed for the physician-patient situation to negligence actions arising from an employer-employee relationship.

In contrast to a physician-patient relationship, it is not unusual that the same employer-employee relationship may last twenty or thirty years. Yet under the plaintiff’s argument, an employee’s cause of action for an injury caused by his employer’s negligence would not accrue until [627]*627the end of this lengthy relationship even though the employee had actual knowledge of his injury and the employment-related cause many years before termination of the employer-employee relationship.

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Bluebook (online)
723 F. Supp. 624, 5 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 51, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12514, 1989 WL 123185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lesh-v-allstate-insurance-wyd-1989.