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Tucker v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company6/11/2002
granted, and a motion to dismiss under . . . 12(b)(6) is appropriate.")
Thus, had the Tuckers expressly stated in their amended complaint that State Farm had reimbursed the Tuckers and refused to pay certain expenses in November 1996, the issue of the propriety of raising the statute of limitations in the motion to dismiss would be settled in State Farm's favor. Had this date been specified by the Tuckers, the allegations of the complaint itself would have clearly demonstrated that the Tuckers' claim was time barred, rendering the motion to dismiss an appropriate procedural vehicle for raising the statute of limitations. The Tuckers' amended complaint did not, however, explicitly mention this date. Rather, the amended complaint made reference to the events which began the running of the statute of limitations, ("Defendant STATE FARM paid only the reasonable value of Plaintiffs' medical expenses . . . ."), without expressly mentioning the date on which those acts occurred. To be sure, the amended complaint does specify a date--September 18, 1997--but this date refers to a subsequent denial of payment, not to the date that payment was received and the Tuckers were initially informed of State Farm's intention to deny a portion of their claims.
Recognizing, presumably, that resolution of the statute of limitations issue required consideration of matters outside the complaint, the trial court noted that it was "exercising its discretion to treat State Farm's motion to dismiss as one for summary judgment under Rule 56 of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure." See Utah R. Civ. P. 12(b); see also Strand v. Associated Students of the Univ. of Utah, 561 P.2d 191, 193 (Utah 1977) (explaining that the trial court has initial discretion to consider matters outside the pleadings in rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss). In exercising its discretion to treat this motion as one for summary judgment under rule 56, the trial court became able to ascertain the relevant date for statute of limitations purposes. We see no abuse of discretion in the trial court's decision to treat State Farm's motion as one for summary judgment and hold that in doing so, the trial court cured any procedural defect in State Farm's motion to dismiss caused by the Tuckers' exclusion of a date in their complaint.
Thus, in the narrow instance where a plaintiff's complaint describes events which establish when a statute of limitations begins to run but fails to explicitly set forth the relevant date on which those events occurred, a defendant may raise a statute of limitations defense in a motion to dismiss under rule 12(b)(6) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, provided that the trial court treats the motion as one for summary judgment, thus giving all parties the "reasonable opportunity to present all material made pertinent to such a motion. . . ." Utah R. Civ P. 12(b). This holding is particularly appropriate in light of our policy to "liberally construe " the rules to "secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action." Utah R. Civ. P. 1(a). We therefore affirm the trial court's implicit determination that, in this case, the motion to dismiss was a proper procedural vehicle for State Farm to assert its statute of limitations defense.
II. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TUCKERS' CLAIMS
While the Tuckers concede that some of their claims are based on a contract of first-party insurance and, as such, are governed by the three-year statute of limitations in section 31A-21-313 of the Utah Code, the Tuckers also argue that other claims in their amended complaint are based on fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, causes of action to which, they argue, the four-year statute of limitations i
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