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Gadow v. Parker1/5/2005
Submitted: November 10, 2004
Upon appeal from Superior Court. REVERSED and REMANDED.
The defendants-below, who are the Department of Health and Social Services of the State of Delaware ("DHSS") and Diane Gadow ("Gadow"), appeal from an interlocutory order of the Superior Court denying their motion to dismiss the complaint on limitations grounds. DHSS and Gadow argued to that Court that the action brought by the plaintiff, Joyce Parker ("Parker"), was time-barred. The Superior Court denied the dismissal motion, ruling that the defendants had waived the statute of limitations defense by failing to raise it during the proceedings on Parker's motion to amend her complaint. We conclude that the limitations defense was not waived, because (1) the Superior Court Civil Rules 12(b) and 8(c) require a defendant to raise the defense of limitations either in a motion to dismiss or as an affirmative defense in a responsive pleading, and (2) the defendants met that requirement by raising the limitations defense in both their answer to Parker's original complaint and in their motion to dismiss Parker's amended complaint. We therefore reverse the order denying the dismissal motion and remand the case for further proceedings.
Facts
The underlying cause of this legal dispute is that a series of nearly identical complaints were filed in both the Delaware federal and state courts, all based on the same operative facts. On August 1, 1996 Parker was terminated from her job as a school nurse. On July 30, 1998, she filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, asserting various race, sex, and disability discrimination claims ("USDC I"). Parker sued DHSS, the agency that employed her, as well as Gadow, who was the Superintendent at the school where Parker worked. One year later, Parker filed a complaint against those same defendants in the Superior Court, alleging the same discriminatory acts ("State I"). Thereafter, State I was removed to the federal Court because the State I claims were substantially identical to those asserted in USDC I.
In March 2000, the District Court dismissed USDC I without prejudice, after Parker had failed to properly serve the defendants. On June 22, 2000, Parker filed a second federal action ("USDC II"), which was dismissed again one year later after Parker again had failed to serve the defendants in a timely manner despite a court order directing her to do so. The District Court then remanded State I to the Superior Court, and the defendants filed an answer to the complaint asserting numerous affirmative defenses, including the defense of limitations.
Thereafter, the prosecution of State I was delayed, because Parker's attorney withdrew from the case on March 6, 2002 and was later suspended from the practice of law. Parker then obtained new counsel who entered their appearance on January 21, 2003 and filed a motion for leave to amend the State I complaint on May 13, 2003.
The Motion to Amend
Parker's new counsel sought to amend the State I complaint both to simplify it and to correct apparent pleading mistakes made by her prior attorney.
Defendants DHSS and Gadow opposed Parker's motion to amend. In that context the defendants mentioned the statute of limitations issue in passing, but they did not directly or straightforwardly argue that to allow the amendment would be futile because Parker's claim was time-barred. Rather, the defendants contended that Parker should not be allowed to amend the complaint because she had unduly delayed the proceedings and had acted in bad faith in prosecuting her case. In addition, the defendants argued that they would b
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