 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Rabbit v. Mills8/22/2005
er in this statute of any other statute, insofar as we can determine. "The statutes of limitations are looked upon by the courts with favor as statutes of repose." City of Knoxville v. Gervin, 169 Tenn. 532, 542, 89 S.W.2d 348, 352, 103 A.L.R. 877. It seems to us that if the legislature had seen fit to provide for a tolling period for the statute of limitations they would have, and they certainly could have, passed some kind of a tolling act as is now carried in the Code under section 8046 hereinabove referred to as a tolling act on the one year lien statute. The statute of limitations involved in the present case allows ten years from the time the cause of action accrues. Apparently the legislature considered this a sufficient length of time for an action to be brought on the judgment as originally rendered. Under our practice and under other provisions of the Code it is a very simple matter to renew this judgment before the ten years expires by either the suit on the judgment or by scire facias. Looking at the matter from this viewpoint and from the fact that it certainly seems that this is ample time and ample means have been taken by the legislature to preserve a judgment in force we cannot see any reason why the court should engraft on this statute a tolling period. To do so would to our minds be judicial legislation.
Shepard v. Lanier, 241 S.W.2d 587, 591-92 (Tenn.1951).
It has now been 54 years since this construction of the statute was pronounced by the Supreme Court, and the legislature has taken no action to either amend the statute or otherwise enact a tolling statute.
The legislature is presumed to know the interpretation which courts make of its enactments; the fact that the legislature has not expressed disapproval of a judicial construction of a statute is persuasive evidence of legislative adoption of the judicial construction, especially where the law is amended in other particulars, or where the statute is reenacted without change in the part construed. See Missouri v. Ross, 299 U.S. 72, 57 S.Ct. 60, 81 L.Ed. 46 (1936); Stern v. Miller, 348 So.2d 303 (Fla.1977); Hargrove v. Newsome, 225 Tenn. 462, 470 S.W.2d 348 (1971); Bottomly v. Ford, 117 Mont. 160, 157 P.2d 108 (1945); Cunningham v. Cunningham, 120 Tex. 491, 40 S.W.2d 46 (1931); Walling v. Brown, 9 Idaho 740, 76 P. 318 (1904); See also Krohn v. Richardson Merrell, Inc., 219 Tenn. 37, 406 S.W.2d 166 (1966); McKinney v. Hardwick Clothes, Inc., 217 Tenn. 457, 398 S.W.2d 265 (1966).
The Tennessee Legislature's failure to change the Wrongful Death Statute to provide a right of action for a variable fetus, stillborn, implies approval of the definition of "person" given by this Court in Hogan, Shousha, and Durrett, and gives the judicial construction of the statute the effect of legislation.
Changing our construction of the statute at this time would amount to judicial legislation. We noted in Hogan, as follows:
"Where a right of action is dependent upon the provisions of a statute, as in the case at bar, we are not privileged to create such a right under the guise of a liberal interpretation of it. Judicial legislation has long been regarded by the legal profession as unwise, if not dangerous business. It is generally an ill-starred adventure by wilful men." 319 S.W.2d at 223.
See also Royal Jewelers Co. v. Hake, 185 Tenn. 254, 205 S.W.2d 963 (1947); McBrayer v. Dixie Mercerizing Co., 176 Tenn. 560, 144 S.W.2d 764 (1940).
Hamby v. McDaniel, 559 S.W.2d 774, 776-77 (Tenn.1977).
This Court can find no precedent determining that an Order for Payment by Installments acts as a suspension of the statute of limitations. Nor can we find reas
Page 1 2 3 4 5 Tennessee Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|