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Nixon v. State9/30/2005
ion, the contemporaneous law and our rules of statutory interpretation unequivocally establish that the legislature intended that claims based on events occurring before January 1, 1963 were excluded from the act and forever barred. Therefore, the plaintiffs' claims were not revived by the State Tort Claims Act. In addition, contrary to the majority's characterization of the State's position, it is not necessary to resurrect the repealed retroactivity provision in order to conclude the State has a viable statute-of-limitations defense. The retroactivity provision did not breathe life into the plaintiffs' time-barred claims when it was enacted, and the plaintiffs' claims remained just as dead after the retroactivity provision was repealed as they were before.
F. Application of Frideres Principles to Present Case
I now return to the real issue in this case. That issue rests on the following principle: notwithstanding the general rule that the statute of limitations in effect when suit is filed governs, "'"if plaintiff's suit was barred by the running of a statute of limitations prior to the extension of the limitation period, the subsequent statute cannot revive defendant's liability.'"" Frideres, 540 N.W.2d at 266 (citations omitted). I am convinced the plaintiffs' claims were barred decades ago; they were not revived by the provisions of the original State Tort Claims Act or amendments to that act; and they cannot be revived by this court's application of the current statute of limitations and its discovery rule. See Frideres, 540 N.W.2d at 267 ("Claims barred by pre-existing statutes of limitation are not revived by either [the common law or the statutory] discovery rule."); cf. Leasoff, 428 A.2d at 784 (stating retroactive application of prior decision abolishing sovereign immunity did not revive claims already barred by statute of limitations).
G. Conclusion
When I apply the governing legal principles to this case, I can reach only one conclusion: the plaintiffs' claims are time barred. I cannot understand why the majority believes these well-established principles regarding statutory interpretation and the revival of barred actions have no application to the suit before us. I suspect it is because they believe the debate in this case concerns "the king's liability for his past indiscretions," which they claim "still simmers within our court today." I, for one, have no quarrel with the legislature's decision to waive the State's immunity. My quarrel is with the majority's refusal to apply the law just because they disagree with the policy decisions made by prior legislatures and prior justices on this court. Under those prior statutes and prior decisions, the plaintiffs' claims were barred. I dissent from the majority's unprincipled revival of those claims. I would reverse the district court's ruling and dismiss the plaintiffs' claims on statute-of-limitations grounds.
Carter, J., joins this dissent.
CADY, J. (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The resolution of this case turns on the intent of our legislature, which the majority circumvents by applying legal principles developed after the enactment of the statute from which the intent must be derived. See City of Cedar Rapids v. James Props., Inc., 701 N.W.2d 673, 675 (Iowa 2005) ("In interpreting a statute, our goal is to determine the legislature's intent when it enacted the statute." (citing State v. Tague, 676 N.W.2d 197, 201 (Iowa 2004))); accord City of Fairfield v. Harper Drilling Co., 692 N.W.2d 681, 684 (Iowa 2005); see also Worth County Friends of Agric. v. Worth County, 688 N.W.2d 257, 264 (Iowa 2004) ("Our primary concern in interpreting a statute is to determ
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