Court Opinion

ID: 9713602
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:18:39.414886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:19.497092
License: Public Domain

SAND, Justice
(concurring specially and dissenting).
I agree that the actions involved in the questions certified to this court are not barred by any statute of limitations.
Black’s Law Dictionary states that the term “survival actions” “refers to actions for personal injuries which by statute survives death of injured person. Britt v. Sears, 150 Ind.App. 487, 277 N.E.2d 20, 23. An action or cause of action which does not become extinguished with the death of the party claiming the action.”
In my opinion, a wrongful death action per se is not a survival action but a new action which comes into being as a result of the death. The survival action for an injury is an independent action and is governed by § 28-01-18(4), NDCC, having a two-year limitation, whereas a wrongful death action is governed by § 28-01-16(2), NDCC, having a six-year limitation. See my dissent in Sheets v. Graco, Inc., 292 N.W.2d 63 (N.D.1980).
The actions involved here were commenced more than one year but less than two years after death occurred; therefore, no statute of limitations applies unless § 28-01-26, NDCC, is made applicable.
However, § 28-01-26, NDCC, is an extension statute rather than a time reduction statute and does not become operative in the actions involved here. Basically, the statute was designed to extend rather than to shorten.
During the. 1895 session some of the basic statutes and subsections involved here were enacted or amended not by separate bills but by the adoption of several codes (Criminal Code, Political Code, etc.), which were considered separately. Clement A. Louns-berry, North Dakota, History and People, Vol. I, page 437. My research has not brought to light any bills introduced or acted upon by the North Dakota Legislature which dealt with the subjects covered by § 28-01-18(4), or related matters. Unfortunately, we do not have the usual benefit of individual bills from which we can glean legislative intent and objectives in construing statutes such as are involved here. As a result, speculation and conjecture are invited. The Legislature is in a position to eliminate this problem.
Nevertheless, I find it strange that, as a result of the rationale in Sheets, supra, a wrongful death action is limited to two years, whereas an action for injuries is limited to six years. In my opinion, the reverse should apply.