Opinion ID: 2383999
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Accrual of Wal-Mart's Claims

Text: A critical basis for the Court of Chancery's conclusion that Wal-Mart's claims were time-barred was its determination as a matter of law that all of Wal-Mart's claims had accrued at the time the COLI policies were purchased, i.e., between 1993 and 1995. The Court found that the gist of Wal-Mart's claims was the defendants' alleged failure to disclose to Wal-Mart, at the time the policies were purchased, the material risks associated with the COLI policies, including the tax deductibility and the insurable interest risks. The starting point of the Court of Chancery's analysis (with which all parties agree) is that the applicable statute of limitations is 10 Del. C. § 8106, which imposes a three-year period of limitations on Wal-Mart's tort, contract, and fiduciary duty claims; and that that three-year period applies by analogy to proceedings in equity. [19] The Court further found that Wal-Mart's claim for unjust enrichment was also controlled by the three-year statute of limitations. [20] Accordingly, the Court concluded, for Wal-Mart's lawsuit to have been timely filed, the claims must have accrued no earlier than September 3, 1999 (three years before Wal-Mart filed its action), because under Section 8106, the three-year period of limitations begins to run when the cause of action accrues. [21] This Court has repeatedly held that a cause of action accrues under Section 8106 at the time of the wrongful act, even if the plaintiff is ignorant of the cause of action. [22] As noted, the Court of Chancery found as a matter of law, that the wrongful acts charged in the complaint occurred at the time Wal-Mart purchased the COLI policies. Although Wal-Mart contends that that conclusion was improperly reached in the context of a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal motion, we need not decide that question. Even if it is assumed that Wal-Mart's cause of action accrued by 1995 at the latest, the pleaded facts permit a reasonable inference that the statute of limitations was tolled, i.e., did not begin to run, until October 19, 1999  less than three years before this lawsuit was filed.