Opinion ID: 749924
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: BMI's Alternative Grounds in Support of Dismissal

Text: 36 BMI raises seven alternative grounds in support of the district court's order granting summary judgment to BMI. Of these seven grounds, we find that only the issue of the timeliness of plaintiffs' claims merits discussion. While plaintiffs concede that their Title VII claims were untimely, BMI asserts that all of plaintiffs' claims were untimely. BMI points out that all of the claims raised by plaintiffs are subject to a two year statute of limitations, 16 and that the acts complained of by plaintiffs occurred on or before June 17, 1993. BMI does not dispute that the plaintiffs filed a timely state court action on February 2, 1995, well within the two year statute of limitations. Instead BMI argues that since the state court dismissed plaintiffs' claims on June 9, 1995, and plaintiffs did not move to reinstate their claims until June 28, 1995, the plaintiffs' claims were not filed within the two year statute of limitations. BMI characterizes the reinstatement of plaintiffs' case as being tantamount to the filing of a new lawsuit, and cites Stinson v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., 972 F.2d 59 (3d Cir.1992), for the proposition that such an action would be time barred. 17 While we do not disagree with the rule articulated in Stinson, we find fault with BMI's characterization of the reinstatement of plaintiffs' claim in state court as a new action. 37 After plaintiffs had their state court case dismissed for failure to serve the defendant, plaintiffs moved to have the case reinstated. The reinstatement of the original suit was not the commencement of the action, rather, the action was commenced with the timely filing of the state court suit. The dismissal by the state court was involuntary and without notice 18 , and the plaintiffs promptly moved to reopen the suit. As such, the reinstatement by the state court was not the initiation of a new action, but rather the reopening of the original case. See Ford v. Sharp, 758 F.2d 1018, 1024 (5th Cir.1985). We hold, under these facts, that the reinstatement of plaintiffs' suit was not the initiation of a new action and that plaintiffs' § 1981 and state law tort claims were timely filed.