Court Opinion

ID: 9619228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:24:18.088068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:13:11.740851
License: Public Domain

HEARN, Chief Judge,
(Dissenting):
Because I believe Jackson’s amended complaint relates back to the original cause of action under Rule 15(c), SCRCP, I respectfully dissent.
The majority analyzes Jackson’s amendment as one which adds a party to the action instead of changing the party to the action. While on its face the amended complaint indicates John Doe and Costello Milligan are two separate individuals, the third paragraph of the amended complaint asserts that John Doe and Milligan are “upon information and belief’ the same person. At trial, Jackson will be required to prove that Milligan is in fact John Doe. If Jackson is successful in this, her amendment clearly will be one which substituted a party rather than an amendment adding a new party. The validity of Jackson’s strategy in retaining Doe as a defendant is borne out by Milligan’s allegation, in his answer that he is not John *560Doe. Moreover, the applicable statute states that “an action may be instituted against an unknown defendant as ‘John Doe.’ ” S.C.Code Ann. § 33-77-180 (1989). Therefore, by the plain language of the statute Milligan and Doe are the same person if the jury finds Milligan to be the tortfeasor. Nevertheless, the majority “decline[s] to expand the plain language of the rule” to allow the amendment to relate back to the original cause of action. I would not be so reticent under the peculiar facts of this case.
Rule 15(c)’s purpose, as articulated by the South Carolina Supreme Court, is to salvage causes of action otherwise barred by the statute of limitations. Thomas v. Grayson, 318 S.C. 82, 88, 456 S.E.2d 377, 380 (1995). “The test to be used in determining whether or not an amendment should be allowed to relate back under Rule 15(c) to the date of the original pleading to avoid the statute of limitations, is found in the language of the Rule; specifically, whether the claim or defense asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth in the original pleading.” Id. Once litigation involving particular conduct or a given occurrence has been instituted, the parties are not entitled to the protection of the statute of limitations against the later assertion when the claim arises out of the same conduct, transaction, or occurrence as set forth in the original pleading. Id. at 88, 456 S.E.2d at 377, citing 6A Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1496 (1990).
The majority relies upon Hughes v. Water World Water Slide, Inc. ., 314 S.C. 211, 442 S.E.2d 584 (1994), to interpret Rule 15(c), and notes that Hughes adopted a four-part test from Schiavone v. Fortune, 477 U.S. 21, 29, 106 S.Ct. 2379, 91 L.Ed.2d 18 (1986),. to aid in interpreting the requirements of Rule 15(c), SCRCP. While the South Carolina Supreme Court approved of the four-prong analysis set forth in Schiavone, it disagreed with the result reached there and proceeded to adopt a more liberal construction of Rule 15(c) than the United States Supreme Court. Specifically, the court found the result in Schiavone inconsistent with Rule 8(f), SCRCP, which requires that “all pleadings shall be so construed as to do substantial justice to all parties.” Hughes, 314 S.C. at 214, 442 S.E.2d at 586. In doing so, the South Carolina Supreme Court found that the fourth Schiavone prong had been satis*561fied where the pleadings described an event which occurred, inter alia, in the presence of the president of the misnamed corporate defendant. Id. at 215, 442 S.E.2d at 586.
Here, all four of the Schiavone prongs were established. The claim against Milligan arose out of the conduct set forth in the original pleading. Milligan, if he is John Doe as Jackson maintains, had notice of the claim and cannot be heard to claim prejudice when his own actions in leaving the scene necessitated the bringing of a “John Doe” action. Milligan, if he is John Doe, should have known that, but for his actions in leaving the scene, the action would have been brought against him in the first instance. Finally, if Milligan is indeed John Doe, he acquired the knowledge required in the second and third Schiavone prongs within the prescribed limitations period. Just as the South Carolina Supreme Court found Schiavone’s fourth prong satisfied in Hughes, where the event occurred in the presence of the corporate defendant’s president, I would hold it satisfied here where Milligan, if he is proved at trial to be John Doe, was present when Jackson’s injury occurred. Allowing the amended pleading to relate back will work substantial justice to all parties and is consistent with the liberal construction of Rule 15(c) adopted by our supreme court in Hughes.
Accordingly, I would reverse the circuit court order and remand the case for a disposition on the merits.