Court Opinion

ID: 9667426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:45:20.406796+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:37.757316
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent.
Plaintiff was born on September 7, 1959, and was 15 years old when allegedly injured on May 4, 1975, by exposure to and inhalation of sheep tick dust on a ranch in South Dakota. He attained his majority at the age of 18 on September 7, 1977. Thus, plaintiff was a minor when his cause of action accrued.
Selco Supply Company and Balcom Chemical, Inc., defendants, were served on October 6, 1980, and September 5, 1980, respectively. SDCL 15-2-22 is applicable and required plaintiff to bring his action within one year after he attained his majority. Having failed to do so, his cause of action is barred by the statute of limitations and the trial court properly granted summary judgment. I would affirm the trial court.
Plaintiff attempts to circumvent SDCL 15-2-22 by relying upon SDCL 15-2-20 claiming, essentially, that the one year was tolled inasmuch as Selco Supply Company and Balcom Chemical, Inc., were not amenable to process. I disagree. Under SDCL 15-7-2, this State’s long-arm statute, and SDCL 47-8-17, the latter a long-arm statute relating to foreign corporations doing business in South Dakota, both defendants could have and should have been served. Why was no attempt made to serve our Secretary of State? Plaintiff failed to avail himself of the protections afforded under these statutes. He was not diligent in seeking service upon defendants who were subject to the jurisdiction of the South Dakota courts. See Hammel v. Bettison, 362 Mich. 396, 107 N.W.2d 887 (1961). See also, Hurwitch v. Adams, 52 Del. (2 Storey) 13, 151 A.2d 286 (1959). Plaintiff can be legally forgiven for not suing out his lawsuit when he was a minor and for one year thereafter but not for the additional two years. If plaintiff attempted to effect service upon defendants, it is not aptly demonstrated by the record herein.*
Plaintiff’s pleadings sound in tort. The tort allegedly arose in South Dakota. And the negligence (failure to warn of poisonous sheep tick dust) is alleged to have occurred, or continued, within South Dakota. It is undisputed that plaintiff was, at all times relevant hereto, a resident of the State of South Dakota.

 Motion Hearing contents, Circuit Court, Eighth Judicial Circuit, Honorable R.E. Brandenburg presiding, May 21, 1981, at 3:02 p.m., page 19:
THE COURT: I doubt very much if when this case hit your office that you had too much trouble finding out where to make service.
MR. TELLINGHUISEN (counsel for plaintiff): We didn’t when we went to the parent corporation outside the state, Your Honor.
THE COURT: That’s what I’m getting at. If they had minimal contact within the state, you didn’t have too much trouble finding out who they were and how to get service on them.