Opinion ID: 504420
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Characterization of the Kentucky statute of limitations

Text: 26 Siroonian argues that even if Kentucky substantive law applies, the Mississippi statute of limitations controls this action. While Kentucky's one-year statute of limitations applicable to wrongful death actions would bar the instant tort claims, Mississippi's more generous six-year limitations period would not. 27 It is well-settled that although Mississippi applies the substantive law of the state satisfying the center of gravity test enunciated above, it applies its own law in procedural matters, which generally includes statutes of limitation. Price, 784 F.2d at 605; Vick v. Cochran, 316 So.2d 242, 246 (Miss.1975). Mississippi does recognize an exception to the general rule that a statute of limitations is procedural where the limitations period is an integral part of the statute which created the cause of action, and expiration of the limitations period extinguishes the right of action. Ramsay v. Boeing Co., 432 F.2d 592, 596-97 (5th Cir.1970); Bethlehem Steel Co. v. Payne, 183 So.2d 912, 916 (Miss.1966). This exception is to be broadly applied. Ramsay 432 F.2d at 597-98. Further, Mississippi honors the construction of a statute placed on it by the courts of the state whose legislature enacted it. Price, 784 F.2d at 605; Davis v. Meridian & Bigbee R.R., 248 Miss. 707, 161 So.2d 171, 172 (Miss.1964). Thus, we look to the Kentucky courts for direction in determining whether the limitations period imposed on a wrongful death action under Kentucky law is substantive or procedural. 28 Regrettably, no Kentucky case definitively labels the limitations period in question as substantive or procedural. Indeed, the question of whether to apply the Kentucky statute of limitations where a Kentucky cause of action is sued on would never arise in a Kentucky court, because the state of the substantive law and the forum state would always necessarily coincide. See DeValle Da Costa v. Southern Pacific Co., 167 F. 654 (D.Mass.1909), rev'd on other grounds, 176 F. 843 (1st Cir.1910). We think, however, that a careful reading of the Kentucky precedents in this area reveals that Kentucky courts consider the statute of limitations applicable to Kentucky's wrongful death statute to be substantive law. 29 Kentucky's wrongful death statute is found in Ky.Rev.Stat.Ann. Sec. 411.130 (Michie/Bobbs-Merrill 1985), and reads in part: 30 (1) Whenever the death of a person results from an injury inflicted by the negligence or wrongful act of another, damages may be recovered for the death from the person who caused it, or whose agent or servant caused it. If the act was wilful or the negligence gross, punitive damages may be recovered. The action shall be prosecuted by the personal representative of the deceased. 31 The limitations period imposed upon this action is contained in a separate provision, Ky.Rev.Stat.Ann. Sec. 413.140 (Michie/Bobbs-Merrill 1985), which provides in part: 32 (1) The following actions shall be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrued: (a) An action for an injury to the person of the plaintiff, or of her husband, his wife, child, ward, apprentice or servant. 33 In an early case examining Kentucky's wrongful death cause of action, the Kentucky Court of Appeals 3 traced the applicable statutes from their origin, and concluded that the limitations clause is an integral part of the wrongful death statute. Carden v. Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co., 101 Ky. 113, 39 S.W. 1027, 1028 (1897). While the court in Carden was concerned with the point from which the limitations period begins to run and not the precise issue before us, its construction of the statutes provides meaningful direction. The court noted that the wrongful death action, which did not exist at common law, was included as part of the Kentucky Constitution, Section 241, and enacted by an act of the legislature in 1854, 1854 Laws of Kentucky chapter 964. Section four of the enabling act provided that actions had to be commenced within one year from the time of death. Subsequently, the act was transferred intact to the general statutes, except for section four, which was transferred to the general chapter on limitations, where the language was changed for the sake of brevity and conciseness to essentially the way it reads today. The Carden court explained: 34 It seems evident that it was the intention of the legislature to limit the time when actions could be instituted under [the wrongful death] statute to one year from the day when the cause of action accrued, which undoubtedly was the date of the death. To hold that this suit may be commenced at any time within one year after the appointment of an administrator, who may be appointed any time within 20 years, is to hold that a radical change in the policy of the statute was worked simply by a change of phraseology, dictated merely by convenience, in a general revision of the statutes; as the obvious purpose was to provide for a reasonable limitation of actions which did not accrue to a man in his lifetime, but which might accrue for the benefit of his estate after his death. 35 Id. at 1028. 36 The Carden case has been cited with approval several times by the Kentucky Court of Appeals. In Faulkner's Adm'r v. Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co., 184 Ky. 533, 212 S.W. 130 (1919), the court noted that the then-current statute of limitations was in intent and purpose but a re-enactment of the act of 1854, which gave the right of action for the loss of life and expressly provided that the limitation period should be one year from the date of death. Id. at 130; see also, Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co. v. Simrall's Adm'r, 127 Ky. 55, 104 S.W. 1011 (1907); Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co. v. Brantley's Adm'r, 106 Ky. 849, 51 S.W. 585 (1899). Collectively, these cases support a finding that the Kentucky courts construe the one-year limitation to be an integral part of the statute creating the wrongful death cause of action. See DeValle Da Costa, 167 F. 654. 37 We disagree with Siroonian's argument that Kentucky courts view their state's wrongful death limitations period as procedural. Siroonian relies upon Louisville & Nashville R.R. Co. v. Burkhart, 154 Ky. 92, 157 S.W. 18 (1913), which followed the general rule that where a limitations period applicable to a state's wrongful death cause of action is found in a different and general statute of that state, it relates only to the remedy and has no force outside that state. The Burkhart court, however, was construing Indiana's wrongful death statute and applicable limitations period. In reaching its holding, the Burkhart court explained that where the statute prescribing the limitation period for a wrongful death action is construed as part of the statute creating the cause of action, it is then considered a part of the right and applied when a foreign forum applies the state's wrongful death cause of action. The Burkhart court was not confronted with, and did not address, an interpretation of the Kentucky wrongful death statute and its applicable limitations provision. 38 Nor do we gain any help from Deupree v. Levinson, 186 F.2d 297 (6th Cir.1950), cert. denied, 341 U.S. 915, 71 S.Ct. 736, 95 L.Ed. 1351 (1951). While that court did state that the Kentucky limitations statute applicable to wrongful death actions was procedural only, id. at 302, this statement was merely dicta because federal admiralty law determined the disposition of the case, rendering a procedural/substantive distinction unnecessary, id. at 304. The Deupree court appears to have looked only to the face of the statutes without examining legislative history or Kentucky case law. 39 Our reading of the Kentucky courts persuades us that they construe the limitations period applicable to the Kentucky wrongful death statute to be substantive law. If no suit is filed within one year, any right of action for wrongful death dies. Simrall's Adm'r, 104 S.W. at 1014; Faulkner's Adm'r, 212 S.W. at 130. 4 Since Mississippi honors the construction of the Kentucky statutes given to them by the courts of Kentucky, Mississippi would apply the Kentucky one-year limitations period to Siroonian's claims under Kentucky's wrongful death statute. 40 We need not reach the issue of Siroonian's capacity to sue. 41 AFFIRMED.