Court Opinion

ID: 9703429
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:55:43.36768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:48.810796
License: Public Domain

Billings, J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part) I concur with the majority view that the amendment to 12 V.S.A. § 512(4), effective July 1, 1976, adopting the so-called discovery rule for determining when actions accrue for purposes of the statute of limitations, has no retroactive effect. It has no bearing on the case at bar.
However, as I stated in my dissent in South Burlington School District v. Goodrich, 185 Vt. 601, 608, 382 A.2d 220, 224 (1977), the holding in Murray v. Allen, 103 Vt. 373, 154 A. 678 (1931), should have been overruled long ago. The modern trend and more enlightened view adopts the so-called discovery rule for ascertaining when a cause of action accrues for the purpose of the statute of limitations. It should have been the law of this jurisdiction. Anderson v. McKee, 136 Vt. 623, 383 A.2d 273 (1978); South Burlington School District v. Goodrich, supra, 135 Vt. at 608, 382 A.2d at 224.
If the discovery rule were applied to this case, as it should be, the action would be allowed, since it was commenced within three years from the discovery of the injury. I am unable to hide behind the majority’s view that legislative inertia before the 1976 amendment to the statute of limitations bars this Court from overruling its outdated, inequitable, and unrealistic rule. I find the necessity of overruling Murray v. Allen, supra, particularly compelling in view of the fact that the legislature has now, in effect, by the amendment to 12 V.S.A. § 512 (4), overruled that case. In the case at bar it is my view that the action is not barred by the statute of limitations.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Hill joins in this opinion.