Court Opinion

ID: 9790446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:53:01.224952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:29.579841
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Justice,
concurring:
I concur in affirming the judgment of the trial court on the grounds that the facts do not support an estoppel, and under our decision in Snyder v. Clune, 15 Utah 2d 254, 890 P.2d 915 (1964), the plaintiff cannot rely upon the tolling provision of Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-35.
I do not join that part of the majority opinion that discusses the application of section 78-12-35 in cases where the nonresident motor vehicle act is not involved and impliedly overrules three previous, decisions of this court, Keithr-O’Brien Co. v. Snyder, 51 Utah 227, 169 P. 954 (1917); Buell v. Duchesne Mercantile Co., 64 Utah 391, 231 P. 123 (1924); and Gass v. Hunting, 561 P.2d 1071 (Utah 1977). Discussion of those cases is entirely unnecessary here because none of them involved the nonresident motor vehicle act, section 41-12a-505, that was before us in Snyder v. Clune and is before us in the instant case. The parties have not briefed what effect should be given to the tolling statute in a context other than in an automobile accident case where the nonresident motor vehicle act is applicable. Discussion of and a decision on that subject should await such time as that question is posed to us in a later case, when the issue has been briefed by the parties.
Our decision in Snyder v. Clune is good law because the enactment of the nonresident motor vehicle act in 1943 effected a pro tanto repeal of the tolling provision of section 78-12-35. This is so because the act appoints the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code as an agent for the service of process upon any nonresident who is involved in an automobile accident in Utah or any resident who departs the state following an accident. This court correctly reasoned in that case that if a person departs the state but leaves an agent here upon whom process can be served, that person, for the purposes of commencing a lawsuit, has not really departed the state. However, the nonresident motor vehicle act does not apply in cases that do not involve an automobile accident. In such cases, there is no appointed agent, and different considerations may enter in. Any decision by this court regarding those situations should await a case where the issue is squarely presented and the parties have briefed it.
While it is true that a number of states have held that their tolling statutes do not apply if a defendant who has departed the state is still amenable to the service of process, courts in other states have held otherwise. One of the leading cases taking this view is Dew v. Appleberry, 23 Cal.3d 630,153 Cal.Rptr. 219, 591 P.2d 509 (1979). In that case,' the California Supreme Court noted that the tolling statute of that state was enacted in 1872 and had been given effect in numerous decisions of that court and of the court of appeals. The court observed that the statute was unchanged from the date of its enactment, and the legislature being “clearly aware of the statute’s broad ramifications has modified the reach of the rule in appropriate circumstances” such as California’s nonresident motor vehicle act. The court stated:
These provisions evidence the Legislature’s recognition that the availability of personal jurisdiction may remove the necessity for suspending the statute of limitations. If the Legislature intends that the tolling provision not extend the limitations period whenever the defendant is amenable to jurisdiction, it can easily so state.
Id. 153 Cal.Rptr. at 222, 591 P.2d at 512. The court then observed that the Illinois Legislature had recently amended its tolling statute so that it would not apply to any person who was amenable to service of process in that state. Id.
The Supreme Court of Ohio in Seeley v. Expert, Inc., 26 Ohio St.2d 61, 269 N.E.2d *293121 (1971), and the Supreme Court of Texas in Vaughn v. Deitz, 430 S.W.2d 487 (Tex.1968), have likewise refused to hold the tolling statutes of those states inoperative when a departed defendant is amenable to the service of process in that state. These courts recognized that it was the legislature’s prerogative to establish statutes of limitations and to provide for instances in which their running should be tolled. These courts further observed that while there may be valid arguments that tolling statutes are unnecessary when a defendant is amenable to the service of process, those arguments must be addressed to the legislature, not to the courts.
Our tolling statute, section 78-12-35, does not differ materially from its original enactment in Laws of Utah (1872), chapter TV, section 23. Even at that early date, under the Civil Practice Act of February 17, 1870, service of process could be made upon an absent defendant by leaving a copy of the summons “at his usual place of abode, with some suitable person of, at least, the age of fourteen years.” 1876 Utah Laws 407 (title XX, ch. Ill, § 20). Thus, when the tolling statute was enacted in 1872, it appears that the legislature was aware that a defendant who was absent from the state could be served with process if his usual place of abode was still in the state.
In conclusion, with the expansion of means by which jurisdiction can be obtained over a defendant who has left the state, there may not be the same need for our tolling statute as previously existed. However, it appears to me that this court should not make any decision rendering our tolling statute inoperative in cases that do not involve an auto accident until the issue has been squarely presented to this court and briefed. That has not happened in this case.
DURHAM, J., concurs.
Having disqualified himself, STEWART, Associate C.J., does not participate herein; STANTON M. TAYLOR, District Judge, sat.