Opinion ID: 1928643
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Application of Schoemaker

Text: As his third assignment of error, Polinski argues that the district court erred in finding the reasoning in Schoemaker applicable to the instant case. In particular, Polinski states that unlike the political subdivision in Schoemaker, OPPD expressly waived the 1-year claim provision in the Act by rejecting his claim in its December 19, 1991, letter. We disagree and conclude that Schoemaker is clearly dispositive of the instant case. Polinski is correct in noting that the political subdivision in Schoemaker did not expressly reject a claim filed by Schoemaker. In fact, the record in that case indicated that the district was willing to offer a settlement. Much like Polinski, however, Schoemaker argued that the district was estopped from raising the issue of her failure to comply with the notice requirements of the Act. We resolved this waiver argument by noting that while the date of Schoemaker's injury was August 22, 1989, a written claim was not submitted to the district until October 25, 1990. Since Schoemaker failed to file this claim within the 1-year time limit of § 13-919(1), we held that Schoemaker cannot rely, as an element of estoppel or waiver, on [the district's] actions in communicating with Schoemaker's attorney after the statute of limitations had expired. Id. at 974, 515 N.W.2d at 680. In short, we held that once the statute of limitations had run for the filing of the claim, there was no claim to waive. Although OPPD did refuse to settle with Polinski on December 19, 1991, we still find the reasoning of Schoemaker to be applicable. The undisputed facts show that Polinski was injured on April 2, 1990, but he did not submit a written claim to OPPD until July 12, 1991, a full 15 months later. Similar to the situation in Schoemaker, Polinski's submission of the claim was untimely because it occurred beyond the 1-year limitation set forth in § 13-919(1). For this reason, any subsequent action taken by OPPD on the claim, including a rejection, cannot act as a waiver for the notice requirements. Thus, we conclude that the district court was correct in applying our reasoning in Schoemaker because OPPD cannot reject a claim that was never properly commenced within the statute of limitations.