Court Opinion

ID: 9640727
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:13:42.22986+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:32.440992
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, concurring. The complaint in this case alleged injury in an automobile accident which occurred May 27, 1983. The plaintiff was a minor when the accident occurred, so she had three years from the time of reaching majority to file her complaint. She alleges that she had until October 14, 1986, to file, and that is the date on which the complaint was filed. Having waited until the last possible filing date, she filed her complaint for personal injury in the chancery court. Her statement of the case on appeal is that the complaint was “inadvertently” filed in the chancery court. Sometimes cases have both legal and equitable aspects and it is difficult to know whether to begin in the chancery or circuit court. This was not such a case. The lawyer who filed this case must have known it belonged in the circuit court. The thought that it was filed in the chancery court merely for the purpose of further delay is inescapable. However, if we were to hold that the statute of limitations prevents the circuit court from considering the case after transfer, we would be imposing a rule which we would have to apply in all cases, including those where there could be a legitimate question where the case should be filed. While my sentiment is with Justice Hays’s dissenting opinion, I must concur with the majority. If we are ever to put an end to this gamesmanship, we must amend our Constitution and unify our court system.