Opinion ID: 76179
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Separate and Distinct Injury

Text: 14 Brown also argues that the decision to set-off his parole reconsideration until 2007, 3 after the Georgia Parol Board denied him parole in 2001, constitutes a distinct and separate harm. Therefore, according to Brown, the statute of limitations begins to run from the date he was informed that his parole reconsideration hearing would not be until 2007. We disagree. 15 What Brown ignores is the fact that the statute of limitations begins to run from the date the facts which would support a cause of action are apparent or should be apparent to a person with a reasonably prudent regard for his rights. Rozar v. Mullis, 85 F.3d 556, 561-62 (11th Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). For the purposes of this case, the operative phrase is should be apparent. 16 It is undisputed in this case that the Georgia Parole Board informed Brown in 1995 that his parole reconsideration would not be until 2000. At this point, Brown was aware that his parole reconsideration was being held outside the three-year maximum that was mandated by the Georgia Parole Board policy that was in place at the time he committed his crime. It also should have been apparent to Brown at this time that future parole reconsiderations would be held outside the three-year period. 17 Each time Brown's parole reconsideration hearing is set, it does not amount to a distinct and separate injury. See, e.g., Smith v. Grubbs, 42 Fed.Appx. 370, 371 (10th Cir.2002) (unpublished). Rather, Brown's injury, to the extent it ever existed, was when the Georgia Parole Board applied its new policy, eliminating the requirement of parole review every three years for Brown, retroactively. It is the decision in 1995 that forms a potential basis for Brown's claim. It was also at this point that Brown could have discovered the factual predicate of his claim. The successive denials of parole do not involve separate factual predicates and therefore do not warrant separate statute-of-limitations calculations. Because Brown did not file his claim within two years of the 1995 decision, his § 1983 action is untimely.