Opinion ID: 1242865
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Factual Dispute and Florez

Text: ¶ 60 I agree with the court that the discovery rule applies to this case. I also agree that there is a genuine issue of material fact with respect to when the plaintiff discovered her claim. So, too, there is a genuine issue of material fact over her ability to have managed her affairs within the meaning of Florez, such that even after she did discover the claim, significant tolling occurred. That is all this case is about and it could have been simple enough to say that. Instead, the court tries to explain Florez, in a case in which there is no need to do so. ¶ 61 In Florez, we adopted the traditional rule that our court of appeals had already adopted in Allen v. Powell's International Inc., 21 Ariz.App. 269, 270, 518 P.2d 588, 589 (1974). We acknowledged that unsound mind, meant that a person is unable to manage his affairs or to understand his legal rights. Florez, 185 Ariz. at 525, 917 P.2d at 254. People who are unable to manage their affairs or to understand their legal rights are typically protected in the law. For example, we generally conclude that they are unable to make wills, A.R.S. § 14-2501 (1995), and are often in need of the protection of guardians or conservators, A.R.S. § 14-5401(2)(a)(Supp.1997). But it is a failing of cognition, not volition. That is why we said that the focus of the unsound mind inquiry is on a plaintiff's ability to manage his or her ordinary daily affairs. It does not focus on the plaintiff's ability to pursue the subject matter of the litigation at issue. Florez, 185 Ariz. at 525, 917 P.2d at 254. We said that the existence of hard evidence that a person was incapable of carrying on the day-to-day affairs of human existence was necessary to a finding of unsound mind within the meaning of the statute. This was because [t]hese are empirical facts easily verifiable and more difficult to fabricate than a narrow claim of inability to bring the action. Id. at 526, 917 P.2d at 255. Drawing upon the views of the Supreme Court of Michigan, and the Report of the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association, we concluded that this was a wise place to draw the line so that questions of cognition would not be confused with questions of volition. The best guide to whether somebody can understand his legal rights is how that person behaves, not what that person says he or she cannot do. Whether one is able to manage one's affairs is a sure guide to whether one is able to understand one's legal rights. ¶ 62 Contrary to what we said in Florez, the court now says that the court of appeals limited its focus to whether Plaintiff was able to manage her daily affairs and ignored any relevance of the alternative inquiry into her ability to pursue the actionthe second part of the Allen test. Ante, at ¶ 48. But the second part of the Allen test, as we have seen, is whether a person can understand his or her legal rights, not whether that person has the ability to pursue the action. For example, one could understand the right to make a will, but be incapable of confronting the issue of death. This is a failure of will [as it turns out, in both senses] not a failure to understand. Again, it is a question of cognition, not volition. Indeed, as the court discusses this matter, ante, at ¶¶ 48-52, sprinkled throughout are correct references to the second part as an ability to understand legal rights, not an ability to pursue an action. This will no doubt cause confusion and thus, in its effort to explain Florez in a case in which no explanation is necessary, the court creates an enormous uncertainty which will have to be resolved in a future case. ¶ 63 As the court acknowledges, ante, at ¶ 43, one of the claims in Florez did involve repressed memory. Florez, 185 Ariz. at 523, 917 P.2d at 252 (he claims to have remembered these incidents, Gomez moved for summary judgment on the statute of limitations defense arguing that it was tolled because... (3) his memory was repressed). The Florez holding, thus, was squarely intended to apply in all settings, including those in which there is a claim of repressed memory.