Title: Ex Parte Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Mfg.
Citation: 937 So. 2d 1035
Docket Number: 1040393
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: October 7, 2005

937 So. 2d 1035 (2005)
Ex parte JOHNSTON-TOMBIGBEE FURNITURE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC.
(In re Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Manufacturing Company, Inc.
v.
Scott Berry).
1040393.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
October 7, 2005.
*1036 Thomas R. Jones, Jr., and Randal Kevin Davis of Davidson, Wiggins, Jones &amp; Parsons, P.C., Tuscaloosa, for petitioner.
Isaac P. Espy of Espy, Nettles, Scogin &amp; Brantley, P.C., Tuscaloosa, for respondent.
HARWOOD, Justice.
We granted the petition of the plaintiff Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Manufacturing Company, Inc. ("Johnston-Tombigbee"), for a writ of certiorari to review the Court of Civil Appeals' affirmance of the trial court's summary judgments entered for Scott Berry ("Scott"). Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Mfg. Co. v. Berry, 937 So. 2d 1029 (Ala.Civ.App.2004).
Johnston-Tombigbee sued Scott on October 3, 2001, seeking to reform a deed, or, in the alternative, to quiet title to real property. On April 16, 2003, Scott filed a motion for a summary judgment. The hearing on the summary judgment motion was set for August 7, 2003, and on August 6, 2003, Johnston-Tombigbee filed a motion to amend its complaint to add claims alleging conversion of corporate property, unjust enrichment, and breaches of fiduciary duties owed to Johnston-Tombigbee. On September 8, 2003, Scott filed a motion for a summary judgment as to the claims asserted by Johnston-Tombigbee in its amended complaint. On September 10, 2003, the trial court entered a summary judgment for Scott as to Johnston-Tombigbee's claims for reformation of a deed, or, in the alternative, to quiet title, without stating a rationale. The trial court also granted Johnston-Tombigbee's motion to amend its complaint. On September 25, 2003, again without stating a rationale, the trial court entered a summary judgment for Scott on the claims alleging conversion of corporate property, unjust enrichment, and breaches of fiduciary duties asserted by Johnston-Tombigbee in its amended complaint. Johnston-Tombigbee appealed to this Court, and we transferred the case to the Court of Civil Appeals pursuant to § 12-2-7(6), Ala.Code 1975.
Our review of the record is in accord with the facts set out in the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion:
937 So. 2d  at 1031-32.
We granted Johnston-Tombigbee's petition to address the Court of Civil Appeals' *1038 holding that Johnston-Tombigbee's amendment to its complaint asserting the claims of corporate wrongdoing did not "relate back" to the filing of the original complaint and was, therefore, barred by the statute of limitations. In support of its holding on this point, the Court of Civil Appeals stated:
937 So. 2d  at 1032-34.
Judge Murdock dissented, stating:
937 So. 2d  at 1034-35.
Johnston-Tombigbee's argument in its petition essentially echoes Judge Murdock's dissent. This position focuses on the point that the claims asserted in the amended complaint "have arisen from the same conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth in the original complaint," i.e., the transaction by which the parties in this case acquired their interest in the Ziegler tract. Rule 15(c), Ala. R. Civ. P. However, the Court of Civil Appeals correctly observed that Johnston-Tombigbee's amended complaint does present a different fact, i.e., the intent of the parties to take the title to the Ziegler tract in their individual names rather than to have the title to the property placed in the name of Johnston-Tombigbee, as was alleged in the original complaint. Moreover, that fact is a necessary component of the claims added by Johnston-Tombigbee in its amended complaint. Further, although Johnston-Tombigbee's complaint originally asserted claims based upon the deed, i.e., ex contractu,[1]*1041 the claims asserted in the amended complaint are tort claims asserting improper conduct by Scott.
Accordingly, we turn to case authority concerning the relation-back doctrine and its consideration of when different factual allegations in an amended complaint result in such changes to the original theory of the case as to defeat the application of the relation-back doctrine. In ALFA Mutual Insurance Co. v. Smith, 540 So. 2d 691 (Ala.1988), this Court considered an appeal by ALFA Mutual Insurance Company of a judgment entered on a verdict against it in the amount of $75,000 based on claims alleging breach of contract and bad-faith refusal to pay benefits. Among the issues considered by the Court was whether the bad-faith claim, added after the Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment entered on the original verdict on a breach-of-contract claim and remanded the cause, could "relate back" to the timely filed original complaint. The Court stated:
540 So. 2d  at 694 (footnote omitted; emphasis added). In Smith, the Court found that the bad-faith claim was not based upon any fact not presented in the original complaint and held that the amendment did relate back to the filing of the original complaint and was therefore not time-barred. We note that the amendment in Smith added a tort  bad-faith refusal to pay benefits  to the original breach-of-contract action.
In McCollough v. Warfield, 523 So. 2d 374 (Ala.1988), the case referenced above in Smith, the plaintiffs sought to amend a complaint alleging breach of contract to add a fraud claim. As in Smith, the amendment was filed after the limitations period had lapsed; the trial court declined to permit the amendment and held that the fraud claim was barred. On appeal, the Court discussed two earlier cases and the effect of the possibility of prejudice to the defendant as a result of allowing the amendment.
523 So. 2d  at 375-76. The Court in McCollough then concluded that, because the claims asserted in the amended complaint arose out of the same events and the same "set of facts" that were presented in the original complaint, the defendant had suffered no prejudice by the amendment. The Court then held that the amendment related back to the filing of the original complaint and was therefore not time-barred.
The holdings in Smith and McCollough strongly imply that amendments that advance distinct legal theories, such as a tort when the original claim arose in contract, can relate back to the filing date of the complaint whenever the amendment is *1043 based upon the same set of facts presented in the original complaint. An example of a case in which the amendment was held not to relate back is ConAgra, Inc. v. Adams, 638 So. 2d 752 (Ala.1994), in which a plaintiff who originally sought workers' compensation benefits later sought to amend his complaint to allege retaliatory discharge. After the discussion quoted by the Court of Civil Appeals in its majority opinion in this case, the Court in ConAgra stated:
638 So. 2d  at 754. Thus, an implied consideration in ConAgra, as in Smith and McCollough, supra, is the concept of prejudice to the defendant, i.e., whether the original complaint provided the defendant with a sufficient factual basis from which he or she could reasonably anticipate the claims presented in the amendment.
This analysis comports with the discussion by the Court in Sonnier v. Talley, 806 So. 2d 381 (Ala.2001)("Sonnier II"). In that case, the Court considered Talley's medical-malpractice claim against Dr. Sonnier. Talley's original complaint set out medical-malpractice claims, asserting that various health-care providers, including Dr. Sonnier, had caused her to undergo an unnecessary hysterectomy. She later amended her complaint to add claims asserting that, subsequent to the surgical procedure, Dr. Sonnier had misrepresented to her various facts concerning the necessity for the procedure and her continuing health. Talley appealed a summary judgment entered for Dr. Sonnier; this Court determined that, although Talley's claims based on the surgical procedure were barred by the four-year limitations period for medical-malpractice actions, her claims alleging misrepresentations made following the surgery constituted separate acts of malpractice, which were not time-barred. Ex parte Sonnier, 707 So. 2d 635 (Ala. 1997). Accordingly, this Court remanded the cause for further proceedings in the trial court. On remand, Dr. Sonnier filed a motion for a summary judgment, arguing, among other things, that the misrepresentation claims in the amended complaint involved separate and distinct facts that could not relate back to the facts alleged in the original complaint. The trial court denied Dr. Sonnier's motion for a summary judgment and, pursuant to Rule 5, Ala.R.App.P., certified that the issue presented a controlling issue of law to allow Dr. Sonnier to seek a permissive appeal, which he did. See Sonnier II. Dr. Sonnier argued, among other things, that this Court had determined in Ex parte Sonnier that all of Talley's claims were time-barred and, in addition, that Talley's misrepresentation claims were separate and distinct from the claims asserting that Dr. Sonnier had performed an unnecessary hysterectomy and thus *1044 could not relate back to the filing date of the original complaint. Dr. Sonnier's argument, therefore, asserted that the misrepresentation claims were barred by the expiration of the limitations period. In its discussion of the relation-back issue, the Court in Sonnier II first noted:
806 So. 2d  at 386. However, the Court also stated:
806 So. 2d  at 386-87.
When we examine the instant case in light of Sonnier II and its predecessors discussing the relation-back doctrine found in Rule 15(c), Ala. R. Civ. P., as permitting relation back when the amendment arises out of the same transaction or occurrence so long as the amendment does not prejudice the party in opposition, we focus on the nature of the transaction or occurrence. In this case, the occurrence was the transfer of title of the Ziegler tract. Throughout its pleadings, Johnston-Tombigbee has acknowledged that the title to the Ziegler tract was placed in Reau and Scott's names. The original complaint alleged that placing title in Reau and Scott's names was a mistake and that
937 So. 2d  at 1033. Later, Reau testified in his deposition that the parties intended to place the title to the Ziegler tract in their individual names. In opposition to Scott's *1046 motion for a summary judgment, Reau sought to amend the complaint to assert:
Thus, the nature of the relief sought, that title to the Ziegler tract be vested in Johnston-Tombigbee, has not changed. Also unchanged are the facts of the occurrence that gave rise to Johnston-Tombigbee's claim, i.e., the purchase of the Ziegler tract. The only new allegation in Johnston-Tombigbee's amended complaint regards the allegation that the intent of the parties was that title to the Ziegler tract be vested in Johnston-Tombigbee as a corporate asset. Our caselaw, as shown by Sonnier II, ConAgra, Smith, and McCollough, does permit a claim based on a new cause of action added in an amendment to relate back to the filing of the original claim under Rule 15(c), even when the cause of action underlying the claim added by the amendment is as distinct from the original cause as causes sounding in contract are distinct from causes sounding in tort, so long as the "`original pleading gives fair notice of the general fact situation out of which the claim or defense arises.'" Sonnier II, 806 So. 2d  at 386-87 (quoting National Distillers &amp; Chem. Corp., supra, 338 So.2d at 1273).
With respect to the concept of prejudice that is implied in the relation-back doctrine, we first note that in this context the concept of prejudice does not include the possibility of exposure to additional liability as a result of new claims or legal theories for recovery added in the amendment. This Court has explicitly stated that "when an amendment merely changes the legal theory of a case or merely adds an additional theory, and the new theory is based upon the same facts as the original one and those facts have been brought to the attention of the defendant, the amendment does not prejudice the defendant. . ." ConAgra, 638 So. 2d  at 753. See also Whitfield v. Murphy, 475 So. 2d 480 (Ala.1985)(addition of mother's false-imprisonment claim by amendment in daughter's action also claiming false imprisonment related back to the date of the filing of the daughter's action and did not prejudice the defendants because the mother's claim arose out of the same transaction or occurrence as the daughter's claim), and Carter, supra. Thus, the addition of new claims by amendment in Sonnier II, ConAgra, Smith, and McCollough, which added new theories of liability, did not constitute prejudice, even when those new theories raise the possibility of different and additional compensatory damages, as well as the possible liability for punitive damages raised by the addition of the new tort claims asserted in Smith and McCollough. Rather, the concept of prejudice in the relation-back cases concerns the ability of the respondent to the amendment to defend against the claims that arise from the amendment. The factors that might constitute prejudice in this context were noted in McElrath v. Consolidated Pipe &amp; Supply Co., 351 So. 2d 560, 565 (Ala.1977): "`[W]here the amendment will cause excessive delay or where a source of evidence has become unavailable or a statute of limitations would bar a new suit if the opposing party should lose the present action.'" (Quoting 1A Barron and Holtzoff, Federal Practice and Procedure, § 446 comments.)
*1047 In considering whether Scott would be prejudiced if Johnston-Tombigbee's amendment is allowed, we note that it is apparent that the evidence relevant to the parties' intent in the occurrence that gave rise to this casethe acquisition of the Ziegler tractis equally available to both Reau and Scott. Scott argues no prejudice resulting from the loss of any evidence with respect to this allegation, nor does the allegation raise the likelihood of excessive delay. Scott, as the defendant, is not concerned about the possible loss of a cause of action because of the expiration of a limitations period. McElrath, supra. The briefs of the parties do not demonstrate any other instance of prejudice that might arise from permitting Johnston-Tombigbee's amendment to relate back.
Accordingly, we conclude that the Court of Civil Appeals erred in determining that Johnston-Tombigbee's amended complaint could not relate back to the filing date of its original complaint under Rule 15(c), Ala. R. Civ. P. It follows that we must reverse the judgment of that court and remand the cause with instructions for that court to consider further those arguments advanced by Scott that the summary judgment must be affirmed even in the event that the claims in Johnston-Tombigbee's amended complaint relate back to the date of the filing of the original complaint.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
NABERS, C.J., and SEE, LYONS, WOODALL, STUART, SMITH, and PARKER, JJ., concur.
BOLIN, J., dissents.
BOLIN, Justice (dissenting).
Because I believe that Johnston-Tombigbee in its amended complaint completely changed the factual allegations to allege facts that were not alleged in its original complaint, I believe that the claims alleged in the amended complaint do not relate back to the date of the filing of the original complaint and that they are, therefore, barred by the applicable statute of limitations. See Gulf States Steel, Inc. v. White, 742 So. 2d 1264 (Ala.Civ.App.1999). Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent from the main opinion.
[1]  "Arising from a contract." Black's Law Dictionary 608 (8th ed.2004).