Stockburger v. Ray

488 S.W.2d 378, 1972 Tenn. App. LEXIS 323
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 28, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 488 S.W.2d 378 (Stockburger v. Ray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stockburger v. Ray, 488 S.W.2d 378, 1972 Tenn. App. LEXIS 323 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION

TODD, Judge.

In these consolidated cases, the plaintiffs, Mrs. Elsie L. Stockburger and her husband, John Stockburger, have appealed from directed verdicts dismissing their suits against the defendant, Lucy E. Ray, arising out of personal injuries to Mrs. Stockburger.

On October IS, 1969, plaintiff, Mrs. Elsie L. Stockburger, sued the defendant, Lucy E. Ray, for personal injuries sustained in an automobile collision on October 10, 1968. On the same date, John C. Stockburger sued the same defendant for medical expenses of Mrs. Stockburger, loss of her services, and property damage resulting from the same collision.

Mr. Stockburger was awarded a judgment for his property damages and no appeal was made therefrom, hence this phase of the case is not before this Court.

The Trial Judge sustained pleas of statute of limitations and directed verdicts for the defendant in respect to the entire suit of Mrs. Stockburger and in respect to all parts of Mr. Stockburger’s suit based upon the personal injuries of Mrs. Stockburger.

The two assignments of error challenge the ruling of the Trial Judge that plaintiffs’ actions for personal injuries were barred by the one year statute of limitations.

From the dates heretofore stated, it is evident that these two suits were filed on the sixth day after the expiration of a period of one year from the date of injury. The plaintiffs insist that the running of the one year statute was tolled because of recurrent absences of defendant from the State of Tennessee during the year following the injury.

In her discovery deposition, defendant testified that, on the day of the collision she resided in an apartment in Nashville, Tennessee; that her parents resided in Birmingham, Alabama; that, from October [380]*38010, 1968, the date of collision, until October 10, 1969 (one year later) she visited her parents in Alabama every third weekend and some holidays; that during said period she was absent from the State of Tennessee an estimated total of twenty-five days. There is no other evidence of defendant’s absence from the State and no evidence that at any time during said period defendant removed her regular residence from the said apartment in Nashville, Tennessee.

Plaintiffs rely upon § 28-112, T.C.A., as follows:

“28-112. Suspension during absence from state. — If at any time any cause of action shall accrue against any person who shall be out of this state, the action may be commenced within the time limited therefor, after such person shall have come into the state; and, after any cause of action shall have accrued, if the person against whom it has accrued shall be absent from or reside out of the state, the time of his absence or residence out of the state shall not be taken as any part of the time limited for the commencement of the action. [Acts 1865, ch. 10, § 3; Shan., § 4455; Code 1932, § 8581.]” (Emphasis supplied)

In Shelton v. Breeding, 43 Tenn.App. 609, 310 S.W.2d 469 (1957), the plaintiff was injured on November 19, 1952 and suit was filed on February 24, 1956, more than three years later. It was insisted that the statute was tolled by absence of the defendant from the State. The Trial Judge sustained the plea, but this Court reversed on the following facts :

“Breeding, a married man, was a resident of Cookeville, Tennessee, and voted there. He was the operator of a power equipment for Foster & Creighton Company, of Nashville, general contractors, which does construction work in Tennessee and other states. Breeding, accompanied by his wife, in a trailer, would go from job to job in various states as his employment required. Sometimes they lived in an apartment rather than a trailer. According to his employment record, he was in Tennessee during the following periods: from November 19, 1952, through January 17, 1953, in Chattanooga; from February, 1953, through March, 1953, Nashville; from October 30, 1954, through May 7, 1955, Knoxville. The remainder of the period in question, i. e., from the date of the accident up until the filing of the suit, February 24, 1956, was spent by him on jobs in other states. On some of these occasions he would visit his parents at Cookeville on weekends and holidays, the number of which is not shown. He owned no real estate in Tennessee and, so far as is shown by the record, did not own any property subject to attachment.” 43 Tenn.App., p. 612, 310 S.W.2d p. 471.

In Shelton v. Breeding, the defendant was in the state only on isolated occasions and his principal residence was elsewhere. In the present case, the defendant’s principal and permanent residence remained at all times in Tennessee, and absences from the State were only on isolated occasions. These facts distinguish Shelton v. Breeding from the present case.

In Carlin v. Wallace, 81 Tenn. (13 Lea) 571 (1884), the Supreme Court rejected a plea of statute of limitations by a defendant who was at all material times a citizen of Georgia; and said:

“The terms are broad and comprehensive, and embrace those persons who are temporarily absent, as well as those persons who are non-residents, and make no distinction between those who are nonresident of the State by removal therefrom, and those who have always been so. So that in the present case no time had commenced to run against complainant, though his cause of action had existed for several years, and he might at any time as he has done by this bill, commence his suit by attachment.” 81 Tenn., p. 573

[381]*381In Kempe v. Bader, 86 Tenn. 189, 6 S.W. 126 (1887), there was a plea of the six year statute of limitations against a note which was made by defendant while residing in Missouri. Defendant relied upon the fact that he had removed his residence to Tennessee more than six years prior to being sued in Tennessee. The Supreme Court said:

“The defendant, after his removal to this state, is shown to have been absent from the state from July, 1878, to November, 1879. This absence, though intended to be but a temporary absence and with intent to return, is nevertheless an absence from the state within the meaning of the latter clause of this section.
“The time during which defendant was absent from the state, after the statute of this state had begun running in his favor, being deducted, the statute has not completed the bar, and the plea of the Tennessee statute is therefore unsus-tained.” 86 Tenn., pp. 192, 196, 6 S.W., p. 127, 129

In Spiegel, Inc. v. Luster, 31 Tenn.App. 342, 215 S.W.2d 16 (1948), the facts and opinion of this Court are stated as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
488 S.W.2d 378, 1972 Tenn. App. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stockburger-v-ray-tennctapp-1972.