Opinion ID: 1686215
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: did the trial court err in applying the one-year statute of limitations to an action for wrongful foreclosure?

Text: Yes. This circuit court action was brought more than one year from the date that Southern Land last prevented Dobbs from foreclosing the property. Mississippi Code Annotated § 15-1-35 reads as follows: § 15-1-35. Limitations applicable to actions for certain torts. All actions for assault, assault and battery, maiming, false imprisonment, malicious arrest, or menace, and all actions for slanderous words concerning the person or title, and for libels, shall be commenced within one year next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after. This statute does not apply to an action for damages for wrongful foreclosure. In Dennis v. Travelers Insurance Co., 234 So.2d 624 (Miss. 1970), we held that § 15-1-35 provides an inclusive listing of the recognized intentional torts. Id. at 626. Dennis cites Bush v. City of Laurel, 234 Miss. 93, 105 So.2d 562 (1958), in which this Court held that the one-year statute of limitations did not apply to an action for trespass upon land which sought to recover damages including expenses involved in initiating injunction proceedings to protect real property. In Bush, this Court reversed a dismissal of a suit for damages in which the defendant alleged the one-year statute of limitations as a bar to recovery. This Court stated, with respect to the one-year statute: A casual reading of Code Section 732 [15-1-35], readily reveals that the present action of the appellants is not of the type enumerated in said Code section and that said Code section is, therefore, not applicable. 234 Miss. at 103, 105 So.2d at 566. Southern Land argues that Bush stands for the proposition that the one-year statute of limitations is not applicable to an action for damages with respect to real property. Dobbs contends that the one-year statute of limitations should apply, even though this action is not one of those listed by that statute because of other language in Dennis, as follows: There can be no escape from the bar of the statute of limitations applicable to intentional torts by the mere refusal to style the cause brought in a recognized statutory category and thereby circumvent prohibition of the statute. Id. at 626. It is the contention of Dobbs that Southern Land's action clearly charges an intentional tort. Our catch-all statute of limitations, Mississippi Code Annotated § 15-1-49, is as follows: § 15-1-49. Limitations applicable to actions not otherwise specifically provided for. All actions for which no other period of limitation is prescribed shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after. The six-year statute of limitations applies to this case because an action for wrongful or fraudulent foreclosure is synonymous with the early common law action known as trespass on the case. The policy in Mississippi has been to provide a short one-year statute of limitations for listed intentional torts and a long six-year statute of limitations for case actions. Revised Code of Mississippi Chapter LVII, Sec. II, Art. 5, (1857): All actions ... on the case founded upon any promissory note... . all other actions on the case, except actions for false imprisonment, malicious arrest, or for slanderous words and libels; all actions for waste, and for trespass upon land... . or property ... shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after. This six-year statute of limitations has been brought forward, with some revision, from the Code of 1880 (§ 2669) to the present form as Mississippi Code Annotated § 15-1-49 (1972). By the same token, the one-year statute of limitations has remained unchanged since its enactment in the Revised Code of Mississippi Chapter LVII, Sec. II, Art. 7 (1857): All actions for assault, battery, maiming, false imprisonment, malicious arrest, or menace and all actions for slanderous words concerning the person or title, and for libels shall be commenced within one year next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after. This one-year statute of limitations has been carried forward from the Code of 1871 (§ 2152) to its present form as Mississippi Code Annotated § 15-1-35 (1972). From a review of the legislative history it is apparent that the policy of providing a one-year statute of limitations for listed intentional torts and a six-year statute for causes of action upon the case has been perpetuated in this state. Therefore, the wrongful or fraudulent foreclosure of property action constitutes a case action which should be governed by the six-year statute of limitations. Under the rationale of Dennis, which construes § 15-1-35 to provide an all-inclusive listing of the recognized intentional torts, and the rationale of Bush v. City of Laurel, supra , the trial court was in error in applying § 15-1-35 to this action. The only listed tort in the one-year statute of limitations that applies to real property is slander of title. This case is not a slander of title action.