Opinion ID: 1231753
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: On the morning of Sunday, May 28, 2000, Michael Worley, Appellant and Plaintiff below, was working as a pipe fitter for Appellees, Beckley Mechanical, Inc., and West Virginia Sprinkler, Inc., on a construction project. Mr. Worley was rotating a valve when the valve exploded under pressure. The valve forcefully struck Mr. Worley in the abdomen, knocking him off a scissor lift and onto the concrete floor approximately thirty feet below. Mr. Worley was transported by ambulance to Raleigh General Hospital where he remained hospitalized until July 10, 2000. [1] The evidence shows that Mr. Worley suffered no brain trauma from the accident. Several days after Mr. Worley's admission to the hospital, he experienced medical complications including an infected central venous line and a perforated liver incurred during the insertion of a chest tube. As a result, he developed sepsis and became seriously ill. Subsequently, Mr. Worley's level of mental functioning varied for significant periods of his hospitalization. On July 10, 2002, Mr. Worley and his wife filed their complaint in which they alleged various theories of recovery against the Appellees including Beckley Mechanical, Inc., West Virginia Sprinkler, Inc., [2] Klockner Pentaplast of America, Inc., Riddle Brothers, Inc., and Nielsen Builders, Inc. The complaint also included a loss of consortium claim by Mrs. Worley. The filing of the complaint was approximately six weeks beyond the two-year statute of limitations. The Appellees subsequently filed motions to dismiss the complaint for a number of reasons including that the complaint was not timely filed. The circuit court converted the motions to dismiss into motions for summary judgment and denied the motions on the basis that a question of fact existed as to whether Mr. Worley had suffered a disability that tolled the statute of limitations. The court ultimately held a bench trial on the specific question of whether Mr. Worley was insane so as to toll the running of the statute of limitations pursuant to W.Va.Code § 55-2-15 (1923), which provides: If any person to whom the right accrues to bring any such personal action, suit or scire facias, or any such bill to repeal a grant, shall be, at the time the same accrues, an infant or insane, the same may be brought within the like number of years after his becoming of full age or sane that is allowed to a person having no such impediment to bring the same after the right accrues, or after such acknowledgment as is mentioned in section eight [§ 55-2-8] of this article, except that it shall in no case be brought after twenty years from the time when the right accrues. After hearing the evidence and considering the arguments of the parties, the circuit court ruled that Mr. Worley was not insane at the time the cause of action accrued so as to toll the statute of limitations. Specifically, the court reasoned: It must be noted, however, that the running of the statute of limitations is suspended if he is insane at the time the [cause of action] accrues. . . . The statute does not provide for the situation where a person is sane at the moment the cause of action accrues but becomes insane afterward. The sole question presented by the statue (sic) is whether he was insane at the time the cause of action accrues. The evidence supports the conclusion that he was sane at that moment, and that he continued to be sane for a few days thereafter. The evidence would present more difficulty if the question is whether he was insane on any given day following the date that the cause of action accrued. There may have been days that he was and days that he was not. But the statute does not work that way, and so that is not the question. There is no claim that the Plaintiff was insane immediately prior to or at the time of the injury. This question of fact focuses on the time immediately following the injury. It is Plaintiff's contention that he was instantly rendered insane by the injury, and that he did not recover from that insanity, for the purposes of the statute of limitation, until his discharge from the hospital on July 10, 2000. If he was instantly rendered insane by the injury, the onset of insanity would be simultaneous with the injurious event. . . . In the present matter, however, it is the court's finding of fact, upon the evidence summarized herein, that the Plaintiff was not insane at the moment of injury, nor was he instantly rendered insane by the injury, nor did he become insane immediately thereafter. (Emphasis in original). Because the circuit court found that the Appellant was not under a disability that tolled the statute of limitations, the court dismissed the Appellants' complaint as untimely filed. The Appellants now appeal that ruling. [3]