Vines v. Crescent Transit Company

146 So. 2d 318, 274 Ala. 173, 1962 Ala. LEXIS 510
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJuly 26, 1962
Docket6 Div. 430
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 146 So. 2d 318 (Vines v. Crescent Transit Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vines v. Crescent Transit Company, 146 So. 2d 318, 274 Ala. 173, 1962 Ala. LEXIS 510 (Ala. 1962).

Opinions

COLEMAN, Justice.

This is the third appeal wherein the same cause of action has been before us. Th$ [175]*175two prior appeals, however, were in a different action. The instant appeal is the first appeal in the instant action. The parties are the same in all three appeals.

Plaintiff seeks to recover for personal in j dry.

In 264 Ala. 114, 85 So.2d 436, the trial court sustained demurrer to one count of the complaint and also overruled plaintiff’s demurrer to the plea of the statute of limitations of one year which had been interposed to the other count. Plaintiff took a nonsuit and appealed. This court reversed and held that both counts were for breach of an implied contract and that the one-year statute did not bar plaintiff’s action.

After remandment the case went to trial by a jury. Plaintiff moved for a nonsuit but the court denied the motion and submitted the case to the jury who returned a verdict for defendant. From a judgment on the verdict, plaintiff again appealed. On this second appeal, 267 Ala. 232, 101 So.2d 332, this court again reversed and held that plaintiff had moved for a nonsuit before the jury retired and, therefore, that the court had erred in denying plaintiff’s motion for nonsuit.

The decision on the second appeal was rendered March 6, 1958, which was more than six years'after the date of plaintiff’s alleged injury, on to wit, January 15, 1952.

This, record does not disclose what took place in the circuit court in the prior action after the second remandment. Because the instant record does show that the instant complaint was filed May 1, 1958, we surmise that, after remandment, plaintiff’s motion for nonsuit was granted in. accordance with our decision and that plaintiff’s original action was thus terminated. In any event, the action now before us is not the same action which was here before. The instant action was begun more than six years after the alleged date on which the cause of action accrued.

The complaint in the instant case contains one count which is the same, in all material respects, as Count A whiph appears in the report of the first appeal in 264 Ala. 114, 85 So.2d 436.

In reply to the instant complaint defendant pleaded: (1) the general issue, and (2)' the statute of limitations of six y’eafs. ’

Plaintiff filed several special replications to plea 2. Defendant’s demúrrér ’to' the special replications was SustáiAed'," whereupon the plaintiff took a voluntary nonsuit’ and has • appealed to review the ¡ruling sus taining defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s’ special replications. The following replications embody the allegations' relied on by plaintiff:

“2. It appears from the record in Case Number 11503 that a non-suit was requested by plaintiff at the last trial of that cause on to-wit March 15, 1956, and was denied by the trial judge, in error, and at such time six years had not intervened since the date of the wrong complained of and set out in the complaint, and that six years expired from the date of the wrong complained of on to-wit: January 14, 1958 during the pendency of said cause on appeal to the Supreme Court of Alabama, and which Supreme Court decision was rendered, on to-wit: March. 6, 1958 and while said action was pending in the' Supreme Court no additional action could have been filed by the same plaintiff on the same cause during the pend-ency of this action.
- “3. The record of said caus.e shows upon its face that the statute of limitations of six years in this cause was tolled by the pendency of said action.
* * ‡ iji ‡ *
“6. For that to apply the statute of limitations of six years in this cause would deny to plaintiff rights guaranteed to her under the Federal Constitution and the State Constitution of Alabama.”

The special .replications allege that, while the second appeal was pending, six years [176]*176after accrual of the cause of action expired, and undertake to assert that the plaintiff is not barred from commencing the instant action after the expiration of said six-year period because the running of the statute was suspended while the appeal in the first action was pending.

Plaintiff argues that she is not barred by the statute of limitations of six years for two reasons. First, plaintiff says that under § 35 Title 7, Code 1940, she was entitled to one year after reversal of the judgment on the second appeal, on March 6, 1958, within which to commence the instant action. As already stated, the instant action w;as commenced on May 1, 1958, which was within one year after reversal on March 6, 1958. § 35 recites as follows:

. “If any action is brought before the time-limited has -expired, and judgment is rendered for the plaintiff, and such judgment is arrested or reversed on appeal, the plaintiff or his legal representative may commence suit again within one year from the reversal or arrest of such judgment, ■ though the period limited may in the meantime have expired;, and in like manner, if more than one judgment-is arrested or reversed, suit may be recommenced within one year.”

Plaintiff admits that:

. “It .is true that by the strict letter of that Code section the judgment initially must be rendered for the plaintiff and when reversed on appeal plaintiff might commence suit within a year from the reversal or arrest of such judgment, though the limitation period may have expired. * * * ”

Plaintiff argues, however, that § 35 should be liberally construed; • that because of § 146, Title 7, plaintiff could not commence another action while the second appeal was pending; that the six-year period of limitation ended before the second appeal was decided ; that plaintiff is now prevented from prosecuting the instant action through no fault of her own; that plaintiff has not been guilty of lack of diligence or other fault; and that it would be unjust for plaintiff to be barred now from prosecuting this action. As we understand plaintiff’s argument, she insists that, under the circumstances of this case, because a judgment for defendant in the prior action was reversed on appeal, the instant action is brought within the exception to the statute of limitations which is created by § 35, Title 7.

Clearly the exception created by § 35 is where “judgment is rendered for the plaintiff.” With respect to statutes of limitation, this court has said: “ * * * that an exception will not be implied for the purpose of arresting their operation; that unless there can be found in the statute itself some ground for restraining it, it cannot be restricted by arbitrary addition.” Howell v. Hair, 15 Ala. 194, 198, 199. See also State Board of Adjustment v. State ex rel. Sossaman, 231 Ala. 520, 522, 165 So. 761, where it was said: “ * * * there are no exceptions to the statute except those made in and by the statute itself.”

The exception made by § 35, Title 7, is where “judgment is rendered for the plaintiff.” .The judgment reversed on appeal and here relied on by plaintiff was a judgment for defendant. It does not present a case of “judgment rendered for the plaintiff,” and is not within the exception created by § 35, Title 7. Bercy v. Lavretta, 63 Ala. 374, 382.

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Bluebook (online)
146 So. 2d 318, 274 Ala. 173, 1962 Ala. LEXIS 510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vines-v-crescent-transit-company-ala-1962.