Opinion ID: 1930910
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Inability to Manage Day-to-Day Activities

Text: Although we have yet to articulate a general definition of unsound mind for purposes of § 9-1-19, such a definition is necessary in this case to determine whether plaintiff was of unsound mind for reasons other than repressed recollection. Generally, in interpreting a statute, we are charged with effectuating the intent of the Legislature in enacting the measure. Matter of Falstaff Brewing Corp. Re: Narragansett Brewery Fire, 637 A.2d 1047, 1049 (R.I.1994). In so doing, we are obliged to give words their plain, ordinary meanings; if that meaning is unclear, we apply the meaning most consistent with the intended policies and purposes of the Legislature. Id. at 1049-50; see also Cummings v. Shorey, 761 A.2d 680, 684 (R.I.2000). Accordingly, in construing the term unsound mind for purposes of § 9-1-19, we examine the historical significance of the tolling disabilities and explore how the term unsound mind has been interpreted in other contexts. The Court and Practice Act of 1905, C.P.A.1905, ch. 13, §§ 248, 253, codified both the statute of limitations for personal injuries and the tolling statute in this state. The progenitor of both statutes was England's 1623 Limitations Act, An Act for Limitation of Actions, and for avoiding of Suits in Law, 21 James I, ch. 16, §§ III, VII, published in Statutes at Large, London, 1786 (1623 James I act). Actions for personal injuries under Rhode Island's 1905 limitations of actions statute, however, had to be brought within two years. The 1623 James I act allowed three years for certain causes of action, a period that was later adopted by the General Assembly, in 1971. Public Laws 1971, ch. 200, § 1. The 1623 James I act also established five legal disabilities that tolled the running of the statute of limitations for personal actions until the removal of the impediment. These impediments were: minority (within the Age of Twenty-one Years), coverture (requiring that under  Feme Covert,  a married woman could sue only through her husband), unsoundness of mind ( Non compos mentis ), imprisonment, and absence from the country (beyond the Seas). Rhode Island excluded coverture but adopted the remaining four disabilities in its 1905 tolling statute and retained them until 2001, when imprisonment was deleted. Section 9-1-19; P.L.2001, ch. 237, § 1, ch. 407, § 1. The competing public policy considerations behind the statute of limitations, on the one hand, and the tolling statute, on the other, are well documented and have been discussed in earlier opinions of this Court. Kelly, 678 A.2d at 878; Young v. Park, 116 R.I. 568, 573, 359 A.2d 697, 700 (1976); Wilkinson v. Harrington, 104 R.I. 224, 234-35, 243 A.2d 745, 751 (1968). Statutes of limitation promote certainty and finality and avoid stale claims, whereas tolling statutes provide temporary shelter from those limitations for plaintiffs who cannot protect their legal rights while under certain impediments. After the removal of the impediment, claims must be brought within a specific time. The 1623 James I act used the term  non compos mentis   literally, not master of one's mind  in describing what has evolved into the term unsound mind used in § 9-1-19. [7] Although this Court has not had occasion to interpret unsound mind in the context of tolling, the term historically has been associated with the concept of legal incapacity. In Miller v. Rhode Island Hospital, 625 A.2d 778, 785 (R.I.1993), we used the term unsound mind interchangeably with the term legal incompetence, holding that a finding of legal incompetence or unsound mind is not a prerequisite to determine that a patient lacks the ability to make decisions regarding treatment. The terms incompetency and unsound mind have been used also in the context of guardianship, In re Estate of Rathbun, 44 R.I. 101, 105, 115 A. 705, 706 (1922), and in the context of establishing testamentary capacity, the measure of which is the memory and understanding of the person    as to the nature and extent of his estate, the proper objects of his bounty and the nature of the testamentary act. Tavernier v. McBurney, 112 R.I. 159, 163, 308 A.2d 518, 521 (1973) (quoting Rynn v. Rynn, 55 R.I. 310, 322, 181 A. 289, 294 (1935)). Beginning in 1896 to the time of plaintiff's complaint, G.L.1956 § 43-3-7 [8] stated: The words `insane person' shall be construed to include every idiot, person of unsound mind, lunatic, and distracted person. (Emphasis added.) We cited this statute in Kelly to support the proposition that a finding of unsound mind is similar to a finding of insanity which is also made by the trial justice in the first instance after hearing or at trial, Kelly, 678 A.2d at 879 n.6, and we have compared unsound mind to the legal term insanity in other instances. See, e.g., Young, 116 R.I. at 572, 359 A.2d at 699 (referring to the historic [disabilities] of insanity, imprisonment, minority or absence from the country). The fungibility of the term unsound mind with the term legal incompetency suggests that unsound mind has been used, like insanity, to denote a mental infirmity that vitiates legal capacity generally. For example, in Sosik v. Conlon, 91 R.I. 439, 164 A.2d 696 (1960), we explained that every mental disability would not necessarily preclude the execution of a contract: Mere mental weakness, or inferiority of intellect, will not incapacitate a person from making a valid contract; nor is it easy to define the state of mind which will have this effect. There must be such a condition of insanity or idiocy as, from its character or intensity, disables him from understanding the nature and effect of his acts, and therefore disqualifies him from transacting business and managing his property. Id. at 443, 164 A.2d at 698 (quoting Longley v. McCullough, 68 R.I. 395, 405, 27 A.2d 831, 835 (1942)); see also Cundall v. Haswell, 23 R.I. 508, 510-11, 51 A. 426, 427 (1902) (quoting 1 Parsons on Contracts, at 335 (8th Ed. 1893)). Thus, Sosik supports the thesis that an unsound mind must disable an individual to a substantial degree before the condition rises to the level of a legal disability. Although the legal history of the term unsound mind makes clear that the designation is intended to apply to the incapacity to carry out legal functions, an effective, operational definition of unsound mind has not been established. In defining the term, we must consider both the legal features of tolling disabilities and previous interpretations of the term. In our opinion, the inability to manage one's day-to-day affairs provides a practical, operational definition of unsound mind. This definition accords with the historical attributes of legal disability and comports with the traditional use of the term as a form of legal incapacity and with this Court's previous connotation of unsoundness of mind as incapacity to manage one's affairs. In re Estate of Rathbun, 44 R.I. at 105, 115 A. at 706; see also Smith v. O'Connell, 997 F.Supp. 226, 235 (D.R.I.1998) (finding that unsound mind connoted a completely incapacitating condition that renders a person legally incompetent), aff'd sub nom., Kelly v. Marcantonio, 187 F.3d 192 (1st Cir.1999). At the same time, this definition of unsound mind can be applied readily by trial justices and fact-finders and refines the term by requiring objectively ascertainable actions or inaction. Moreover, this Court has stated that [e]xceptions in statutes of limitations in favor of persons laboring under disabilities are strictly construed. Kenyon v. United Electric Railways Co., 51 R.I. 90, 94, 151 A. 5, 8 (1930). We believe that defining unsoundness of mind in terms of the concrete, objective standard of inability to manage one's day-to-day affairs complies with the statutory intent of the term and is consistent with our holdings in numerous cases.