Opinion ID: 900625
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Continuing Tort as Tolling the Statute of Limitations

Text: [¶ 4.] Parties intending to sue a public entity must first give timely written notice of injury. In granting summary judgment, the circuit court ruled that the Hollands did not comply with the 180-day notice requirement in SDCL 3-21-2. This statute provides: No action for the recovery of damages for personal injury, property damage, error or omission or death caused by a public entity or its employees may be maintained against the public entity or its employees unless written notice of the time, place and cause of the injury is given to the public entity as provided by this chapter within one hundred eighty days after the injury. The court found that the injury occurred when the water valve was broken in 1994; afterward, the resultant water leakage damaging the Hollands' home was only the ill effect of the broken valve. As the Hollands gave no written notice to the City until September 10, 1996, more than two and one half years after the valve was broken, their claim was held untimely. [¶ 5.] A continuing tort suspends the running of the statute of limitations. Alberts v. Giebink, 299 N.W.2d 454, 456 (S.D.1980). The primary rationale for this rule is that when no discrete occurrence in continually wrongful conduct can be singled out as the principal cause of damage, the law regards the cumulative effect as actionable, and allows the limitations period to begin when the wrongful conduct ends. Curtis v. Firth, 123 Idaho 598, 850 P.2d 749, 754 (1993). A continuing tort occurs when a wrongful act persists over time. 54 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions § 177 (1987) (footnote omitted). On the other hand, a continual consequence from a solitary unlawful act is not a continuing tort. Brishky v. South Dakota, 479 N.W.2d 489, 492 (1991) (citing Ward v. Caulk, 650 F.2d 1144, 1147 (9th Cir.1981)). In Brishky, the suspension of the plaintiff's driver's license was not a continuing wrong, but an injury from which he suffered a continuing aftereffect. Id. [¶ 6.] A classic instance of a continuing tort occurs with prolonged or repeated flooding of land. In Holdner v. Columbia County, 51 Or.App. 605, 627 P.2d 4 (1981), a landowner sued for damage caused by water running intermittently from a public road onto the landowner's property. The landowner saw the damage occurring in 1974 or 1975 and complained to the authorities, but they failed to resolve the problem. When the landowner eventually sued in 1977, the defendant argued that the suit was time-barred by the two-year statute of limitations. The court ruled that the ongoing negligent conduct was a continuing tort:  `Where the tort is continuing, the right of action is continuing.... The rule that the statute runs from the last date of the continuous negligent [act] is just and equitable.'  Id. at 8 (omissions in original) (quoting Reynolds Metals Co. v. Yturbide, 258 F.2d 321, 333 (9th Cir.1958)); but cf. Rygg v. United States, 334 F.Supp. 219, 220-21 (D.N.D.1971) (damage to farmland from flooding caused by the government was not continuing tort). [¶ 7.] A leaking water line was the basis for suit in Handley v. Town of Shinnston, 169 W.Va. 617, 289 S.E.2d 201 (1982). After the Town installed a pipe on the plaintiffs' property, it began leaking and the plaintiffs complained. The Town negligently failed to repair the leak, and it continued, causing property damage. The Handley court reasoned that when wrongful conduct is continual or repeated, the cause of action accrues at, and the limitations [period] begin[s] to run from, the date of the last injury, or when the tortious overt acts cease. Id. at 202 (quoting 54 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions § 169 (1948)). Similarly, in Eppling v. Seuntjens, 254 Iowa 396, 117 N.W.2d 820 (1962) a landowner sought damages and injunctive relief for repeated flood damage to his property occurring after an adjacent landowner erected a dike. Id. at 821-22. The Iowa Supreme Court characterized the wrong as a continuing violation. Id. at 825. [¶ 8.] A continuing tort occurs when all elements of the tort continue, not simply the damage element. In Defnet v. City of Detroit, 327 Mich. 254, 41 N.W.2d 539 (1950), the Defnets sued the City to recover damages to their property resulting from the City's failure to block off or repair a sewer drain. The sewer was constructed in 1901, and the Defnets purchased their home in 1924, a year after it was erected. The abstract did not mention the sewer, and the Defnets did not become aware of its existence until 1928. The next year, the house began to settle and cracks appeared. In 1941, the back yard caved in, but further damage continued until 1944. After they repeatedly asked the City to repair the sewer line, the Defnets finally hired a private contractor to work on the problem, a job the City later completed. Both the Defnets and the City sought reimbursement from the other for the work done. With little discussion, the court held in favor of the Defnets, stating: Where there are continuing wrongful acts within the period limited by the statute, recovery is not barred. Id. at 541 (citations omitted). [¶ 9.] In contrast to these cases, the decision in Hall's Park Motel, Inc. v. Rover Constr., Inc., 194 W.Va. 309, 460 S.E.2d 444 (1995), illustrates the distinction between a continuing tort and a continuing aftereffect. A motel owner sued a construction company for damage first observed ten years earlier, resulting from excavation on adjacent land. The owner sustained both immediate and latent injuries caused by a conspicuous occurrence. In finding no continuing tort, the court ruled that where a plaintiff sustains a noticeable injury to property from a traumatic event, the statute of limitations begins to run and is not tolled because there may also be latent damages arising from the same traumatic event. Id. at 449. There was no continuous wrongful conduct, only a single act with damage the plaintiff did not become fully aware of until later. To constitute a continuing tort, the court observed, all elements of the tort must be continuing, including breach of duty and damages. Id. n. 3. The breach of duty, improper excavation, ceased, but the damage continued. [¶ 10.] Here we have both continuing breach of duty and continuing damage. The water dripped steadily, gradually eroding the soil and damaging the Hollands' house. At the same time, the City's breach of duty in failing to repair the broken valve was ongoing. This is distinguishable from cases where the wrong flows from a single tortious event. Accordingly, the circuit court erroneously granted summary judgment. The 180-day notice period did not commence until the wrong terminated, which was when the main valve was repaired in July of 1996. Therefore, the Hollands' notice of injury was timely. [¶ 11.] Reversed. [¶ 12.] MILLER, Chief Justice and SABERS and GILBERTSON, Justices, concur.