Defendants Shoemate and Walker answered asserting that the statutes of limitations had run on all of plaintiff's claims. Defendants Walker, Munson, Janowsky, and Lutz moved to dismiss plantiffs' complaint. By order filed 3 November 1994, Judge B. Craig Ellis dismissed plaintiff's claims for failure to file within the applicable statutes of limitations. The dispositive issue is whether plaintiff was required to plead mental disability in avoidance of the affirmative defense of statute of limitations. Plaintiff asserts that the statutes of limitations were tolled by her mental disability.
Mental disability tolls a statute of limitations until after the disability is removed.
The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense that must be pled in a responsive pleading. See N.C.R. Civ. The issue is joined without further pleadings, and discovery may proceed. 60 N.C. App. Thus, in this case, defendants' affirmative defense of the statute of limitations is deemed avoided, the issue joined, and discovery may proceed.