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Sanders v. Traver6/19/2003
Factual and Procedural Background
The facts of this case are undisputed. The decedent, Cathi D. Williams, was admitted to Blount Memorial Hospital ("Blount Memorial" or "the hospital") on May 26, 1999, for surgery. The decedent died in the hospital on May 28, 1999. The one year anniversary of her death occurred on Sunday, May 28, 2000. The following day, Monday, May 29, 2000, was Memorial Day, a state and federal holiday, and the courts were closed. See Tenn. Code Ann. ยง 15-1-101 (providing that Memorial Day is a state holiday and that public offices of the state shall be closed). On Tuesday, May 30, 2000, the decedent's daughter, Kaila B. Williams Sanders ("the plaintiff"), filed a wrongful death action in the Blount County Circuit Court against Blount Memorial, a governmental entity.
Blount Memorial filed a motion to dismiss the action, asserting that the complaint had not been timely filed under Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-20-305(b), which provides that actions commenced under the Governmental Tort Liability Act ("GTLA") must be filed within twelve months after the cause of action arises. The plaintiff argued that the action was timely filed under Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 6.01, which provides,
In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by these rules, by order of court, or by any applicable statute, the date of the act, event or default after which the designated period of time begins to run is not to be included. The last day of the period as computed is to be included unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal holiday, or a day when the clerk's office for filing is closed, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal holiday, or a day when the clerk's office for filing is closed....
The trial court, however, granted the motion to dismiss, finding that "the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act supercedes and takes precedent over all other statutory provisions and that no special counting of the Statute of Limitations is set forth under said Act."
The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court, finding that the Rules of Civil Procedure are applicable to actions involving governmental entities and that the rules of computation of time are not inconsistent with the GTLA. In so holding, the Court of Appeals relied upon this Court's decisions in Doyle v. Frost, 49 S.W.3d 853, 858 (Tenn. 2001) and Lucius v. City of Memphis, 925 S.W.2d 522 (Tenn. 1996).
We granted Blount Memorial's application for permission to appeal, and we now affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
Standard of Review
Issues of statutory construction and interpretation are questions of law; thus our review is de novo without any presumption of correctness. State v. Walls, 62 S.W.3d 119, 121 (Tenn. 2001) (citing Freeman v. Marco Transp. Co., 27 S.W.3d 909, 911 (Tenn. 2000)). "Our duty in interpreting statutes is to ascertain and give effect to the intent and purpose of the legislature." Id.
Analysis
The issue before us is, when the statute of limitations runs on a Sunday and the following Monday is a legal holiday, is the action timely under the GTLA when the complaint is filed on Tuesday?
The doctrine of sovereign immunity provides that governmental entities may be sued only upon the terms to which they consent. See Cruse v. City of Columbia, 922 S.W.2d 492, 495 (Tenn. 1996). The GTLA, the act under which the government allows itself to be sued for tort, provides a twelve-month period in which potential plaintiffs may file claims against the government, and, under its own terms, "any claim for d
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