Sanchez v. City of Sand Springs
This text of 1990 OK 26 (Sanchez v. City of Sand Springs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
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On April 30, 1982, Joleen Sanchez (appellant or Sanchez) was injured when a police car struck her vehicle from behind. The police car was owned by the appellee, City of Sand Springs (City). Its driver, a police officer for the City, was acting within the scope of employment at the time of the accident.
Sanchez gave notice of her claim, brought under the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act (Act),1 to the City on May 31, 1982. Three days later, the City’s insurance carrier contacted Sanchez's attorney to request additional information concerning the amount of the claim. Although there were further communications between the insurance carrier and Sanchez’s attorney, the requested information was not provided until November 10, 1982. After receiving no decision concerning approval of her claim, Sanchez filed her action on July 12, 1983.
The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the City on the grounds that Sanchez had not commenced her action within the statutory filing period. The Court of Appeals reversed stating that the City’s request for additional information tolled the filing period until the information was provided.
Three issues are presented: (1) Did the City’s request for additional information toll the 90-day period, within which the political subdivision must approve or deny a claim, until the requested information was provided? (2) Did the actions of the City’s insurance carrier lull the appellant into delaying the filing of her lawsuit so that the City should now be equitably es-topped from raising the statute of limitations as a bar to recovery? (3) Can the plaintiff bring an independent action against the City under Okla.Stat. tit. 11 § 23-104 and escape the filing requirements of the Act? We answer each of these questions in the negative.
Questions one and two were addressed in the recent decision in Doe v. Independent School District No. 1-89, 780 P.2d 659 (Okla.1988). Doe affirmed a trial court ruling that a request for additional information by a political subdivision did not toll the 90-day period. Thus, the Doe decision disposes of question one.
As to question two, both Sanchez and the plaintiff in Doe argued that the subdivision had lulled them into delaying the filing of a lawsuit beyond the period of time allowed by the Act. They further asserted that as a result the subdivision should be equitably estopped from raising the time limitation as a bar to recovery.
Doe followed the decision in Jarvis v. City of Stillwater, 732 P.2d 470 (Okla.1987), which outlined three situations in which a party may assert equitable estop-pel. The plea of estoppel may be raised when:
[t]he defendant ha[s] made (a) some assurance of settlement negotiations reasonably calculated to lull the plaintiff into a sense of security and delay action beyond the statutory period, or (b) an express and repeated admission of liability in conjunction with promises of payment, settlement or performance, or (c) any false, fraudulent or misleading conduct or some affirmative act of concealment to exclude suspicion and preclude inquiry which induces one to refrain from timely bringing an action.
Id. at 472-73. In Doe the actions of the political subdivision did not support the ap[242]*242plication of equitable estoppel. In the instant action, as in Doe, “[a]ppellees never undertook negotiations with appellant nor did they ever admit liability for the claim, they simply were investigating the incident.” Doe, 780 P.2d at 659. The letter from the insurance agent appears to address a future opportunity to enter negotiations for settlement but makes no promise that a settlement will be reached.
Question three arises from appellant’s misunderstanding of section 155 of the Act. That section provides:
A political subdivision or an employee acting within the scope of his employment shall not be liable if a loss results from:
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6. Civil disobedience, riot, insurrection or rebellion or the failure to provide, or method of providing, police, law enforcement or fire protection;
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Appellant contends that if she can set this case within one of the “exemptions from liability” enumerated in section 155, the case will then fall outside the Act and its filing period. She further asserts that if a claim is exempt from the Act an independent action could be brought directly under the now repealed section 23-104 of title 11 which allows recovery up to the amount of the insurance coverage.2
The exemptions in section 155 are exemptions from liability, not exemptions from other provisions of the Act. Further, no independent cause of action is provided by title 11, section 23-104. A very similar argument was rejected in Conway v. Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., 669 P.2d 766 (Okla.1983). Conway brought suit against the insurance company as well as the school district claiming that title 70, section 9-1063 permitted an alternative right of [243]*243action. This action was argued to be available in addition to the suit brought directly against the school district under the Act. We held that section 9-106 had been superseded by the Act. Section 170 of the Act provides:
This act is exclusive and supersedes all home rule charter provisions and special laws on the same subject heretofore, and all acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are repealed.
In addition, it was noted that section 168 of the Act specifically deals with insurance for school districts.
Conway is analogous and the same analysis applies to this case. The now repealed section 23-104 provided for the purchase of liability insurance by municipalities to compensate persons injured by fire or police vehicles. The Act, however, has its own provision for insurance for municipalities in section 167. By operation of section 170, section 23-104 like section 9-106, was superseded and repealed. Furthermore, the Act provides:
The liability of the state or political subdivision under this act shall be exclusive and in place of all other liability of the state, a political subdivision or employee at common law or otherwise ....
Okla.Stat. title 51, § 153(B) (emphasis added).
Appellant’s action was not timely filed. The time limitations of the Act were not tolled by the City’s request for additional information. Nor was appellant’s delay induced by promises of settlement justifying a plea of estoppel. Finally, even if this case did fall into one of the exemptions of section 155, the exemption is from liability and did not confer an independent cause of action under title 11, section 23-104. The trial court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of the City.
OPINION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS IS VACATED. JUDGMENT OF THE TRIAL COURT IS REINSTATED.
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack
1990 OK 26, 789 P.2d 240, 1990 Okla. LEXIS 32, 1990 WL 32890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanchez-v-city-of-sand-springs-okla-1990.