Opinion ID: 1737977
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: TANNER v. HARTOG

Text: We are not unsympathetic with the Fifth District's interpretation of section 766.106(4) in Hankey and Pergrem. Essentially, the court applied its interpretation of the analysis we adopted in Tanner. The main issue resolved in Tanner concerned the commencement of the limitations period and is unrelated to the issues discussed here. However, in Tanner, the claimants also argued that all of the time periods provided for in section 766.106(4) were to be simply added on to the end of the basic two-year limitations period. See id. at 183. Moreover, because the claimants received the notice of termination from the defendants with less than sixty days remaining before the original statute of limitations was set to expire, they also claimed they were entitled to have the sixty-day additional period under section 766.106(4) also simply added, along with the ninety days aforementioned, to the end of the two-year period. See id. Notwithstanding, we disagreed with their argument and instead adopted the method of calculation employed by the district court in that case. [5] However, in Tanner we were concerned primarily with the calculation and application of the sixty-day provision in the statute. Specifically, we wrote: From the date the notice of intent is filed, the plaintiff has ninety days (the amount of the tolling) plus either sixty days or the time that was remaining in the limitations period, whichever is greater, to file suit. We believe the language of section 766.106(4) was intended to provide extra time to a claimant who files a notice of intent shortly before the limitations period expires. This permits the claimant to have the full ninety days in which to try to negotiate a settlement and provides an additional sixty days to file a complaint if a settlement cannot be accomplished. However, the time remaining must be computed from the date the notice of intent was filed, rather than simply adding on the extra time to the end of the limitations period.... Id. at 183-84 (emphasis added). The Fifth District in Pergrem construed our comment about the intent of the language in section 766.106(4) as meaning that the only purpose of the entire section was to affect claims filed shortly before the limitations period expires. We did not intend such a result, but concede that our words may have been less than precise. It is true that the entitlement to any extra time under the sixty-day provision of section 766.106(4) is entirely dependent on when the notice of intent is filed in relation to the time remaining in the original two-year limitations period as discussed earlier. However, the ninety-day tolling provision of section 766.106(4) applies to all cases regardless of when the notice of intent is filed. Thus, the tolling provisions should not be limited to apply only to claims filed shortly before the limitations period expires.