Opinion ID: 2279668
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The lack of on the merits prejudice to the District.

Text: The judge's finding that Tinker would suffer prejudice if the District were belatedly allowed to amend its answer is further supported by the incontrovertible fact that any prejudice which the District suffered as a result of the denial of its motion related solely to a technical defense. The District was not precluded from presenting its position on the merits, and indeed did so when the case came to trial. As Judge Terry expressly recognizes, maj. op. at 60, the statute of limitations is a defense which a defendant is obliged to raise in a responsive pleading, and which the trial court may deem waived if it has not been promptly asserted. See Super.Ct.Civ.R. 8(c); Feldman v. Gogos, 628 A.2d 103, 104-105 (D.C.1993); Whitener v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, 505 A.2d 457, 458 (D.C.1986). Statutes of limitations protect defendants and the courts from having to deal with cases in which the search for truth may be seriously impaired by the loss of evidence, whether by death or disappearance of witnesses, fading memories, disappearance of documents, or otherwise. United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111, 117, 100 S.Ct. 352, 357, 62 L.Ed.2d 259 (1979); Hobson v. District of Columbia, 686 A.2d 194, 198 (D.C.1996); Ehrenhaft v. Malcolm Price, Inc., 483 A.2d 1192,1202 (D.C.1984) (quoting Kubrick ); see also Bailey v. Glover, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 342, 349, 22 L.Ed. 636 (1874). Statutorily imposed limitations on actions are technical defenses which should be strictly construed to avoid the forfeiture of a plaintiff's rights. Steketee v. Lintz, Williams & Rothberg, 38 Cal.3d 46, 210 Cal. Rptr. 781, 694 P.2d 1153, 1158 (1985) (citation omitted); see also Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. v. Henkel, 689 A.2d 1224, 1233 (D.C. 1997) (quoting Steketee ). Such defenses may present obstacles to just claims. Id. This court has stated that the statute of limitations is not such a meritorious defense that either the law or the facts should be strained in aid of it. Simpson v. District of Columbia Office of Human Rights, 597 A.2d 392, 399-400 (D.C.1991) (citation omitted). The majority's holding that the trial judge was required to allow the District to amend its answer to assert a limitations defense awards to the statute of limitations a rank in our hierarchy of values which, in light of the authorities cited, it assuredly does not deserve. In the present case, the District makes no claim that it could not defend Count II because documents had been lost or because memories had faded. On the contrary, any such documents or memories would also have been relevant, at least, to Count I, which the District would have had to defend even if Count II had been dismissed. The District had also received pre-suit notice of the claim pursuant to D.C.Code § 12-309 (1995). It suffered no prejudice to its ability to contest the merits. It is true, as Judge Terry observes, that pleadings are to be construed so as to do justice, see Super.Ct.Civ.R. 8(f), and that Rule 8(f) has been consistently interpreted to reflect `a preference for resolution of disputes on the merits, not on technicalities of pleading.' See maj. op. at 60 (citations omitted). In fact, however, the jury has decided this dispute on the merits, and it is the District that now insists that the complaint be dismissed on technical grounds. Basically, the District is asking that its own technical error be excused so that it can belatedly assert a technical defect in the plaintiff's case; Tinker is to bear the consequences of his untimeliness, says the District, but the District's own tardiness should be overlooked. By this double standard, the District seeks to escape the results of an impartial tribunal's resolution of the substantive controversy between the parties. But disposition of litigation on the basis of counsel's technical errors and omissions is a two-edged sword, and this is the kind of case in which those who live by such a sword should die by it.