Opinion ID: 2790653
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: August 11, 2011 Deadline

Text: Using August 11, 2011 as the operative deadline, White maintained in the district court that time spent in segregation and/or isolation delayed his filing. He stated only that he was “at the Larned State Hospital [from] approximately [July 2007] until around February 2012,” R. at 28, but never explained the circumstances. It was not until his opening brief in this court that White argued for the first time that he “was deemed incompetent on July 14, 2007 . . . and accepted as a patient in a state mental hospital; therefore . . . all time [spent in the state mental hospital] should be stopped and tolled until the doctors found me mentally fit and released me back to . . . [traditional] custody.” Aplt. Opening Br. at 19. Although White did not mention “incompetence” as grounds for equitable tolling in the district court, we deem his general allegation of time spent in the Larned State Hospital sufficient (barely) to have preserved the issue for appellate review. See Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 (10th Cir. 1991) (holding that pro se filings should be construed liberally). -5- “Equitable tolling of a limitations period based on mental incapacity is warranted only in ‘exceptional circumstances’ that may include an adjudication of incompetence, institutionalization for mental incapacity, or evidence that the individual is not ‘capable of pursuing his own claim’ because of mental incapacity.” Reupert v. Workman, 45 F. App’x 852, 854 (10th Cir. 2002) (emphasis added) (quoting Biester v. Midwest Health Servs., Inc., 77 F.3d 1264, 1268 (10th Cir. 1996)). Although White states that he was “deemed incompetent,” on July 14, 2007 and did not regain competency until February 2012, Aplt. Opening Br. at 19, there is no such evidence in the record. Further, there is little, if any, information as to what condition or conditions caused White to be hospitalized, let alone any evidence of mental incompetence. What evidence does exist disproves mental incompetence during the relevant time period. For example, on July 12, 2007, White filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He prosecuted the case pro se until January 2011 when the district court appointed counsel to represent him at the upcoming trial. See Docket, White v. Werholtz, No. 5:07-cv-03182-CM (D. Kan.). More to the point, White’s generalized allegation of incompetence is wholly inadequate to sustain his burden “to show specific facts to support his claim of extraordinary circumstances.” Yang, 525 F.3d at 928 (internal quotation marks omitted). As to time spent in segregation and/or isolation, White’s averments demonstrate that these instances occurred after the limitation period ran on August 11, 2011. See Aplt. Opening Br. at 20-21. -6-