Court Opinion

ID: 9672749
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:59:31.837155+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:18.071267
License: Public Domain

Krivosha, C.J.,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority in this opinion. I write separately, however, because I believe that, for the reasons noted by the majority, any effort by the Legislature to bar a cause of action before it has been discovered, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence could be discovered, would be to deny a class of persons both equal protection of the law and due process in violation of both their state and federal constitutional rights. In Brinkerhoff-Faris Co. v. Hill, 281 U.S. 673, 682, 50 S. Ct. 451, 74 L. Ed. 1107 (1930), the U.S. Supreme Court said: “Whether acting through its judiciary or through its legislature, a State may not deprive a person of all existing remedies for the enforcement of a right, which the State has no power to destroy, unless there is, or was, afforded to him some real opportunity to protect it.” (Emphasis supplied.) See, also, Moore v. Jackson Park Hosp., 95 Ill. 2d 223, 447 N.E.2d 408 (1983). What greater action can be taken by a Legislature to deny an individual a real opportunity to protect a right than to bar the institution of such an action even before the injured party knows or, with the exercise of reasonable diligence, could know that such a right exists.
Whenever the Legislature has adopted a new statute of limitations, courts have required that the injured person be afforded a reasonable period of time in which to seek redress. See, Educational Service Unit No. 3 v. Mammel, O., S., H. & S., Inc., 192 Neb. 431, 222 N.W.2d 125 (1974); Horbach v. Miller, 4 Neb. 31 (1875); Central Missouri Tel. Co. v. Cornwell, 170 F.2d 641 (8th Cir. 1948). Logic therefore would seem *825to tell us that if one knowing of the existence of a cause of action must be given a reasonable period of time to file suit, one cannot have that right legislatively extinguished before the individual either knows of the right or, with the exercise of reasonable diligence, could know of such right.