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State ex rel BP Products North America Inc. v. Ross5/31/2005
it was forced to provide more collateral to secure a loan. In addition, Wandersee alleged that the investigation prompted audits by various government agencies, which required him to pay additional accounting and attorney fees.
III.
Wandersee and ACT filed a petition on January 15, 2002, against BP, PDQ, and Paul and Janet Faix. The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their action on February 18, 2003, and the trial court allotted them 60 days to refile. They refiled the current action on April 17, 2003.
In their petition, Wandersee and ACT assert a total of 13 claims. They both assert separate claims against PDQ, BP, and Paul and Janet Faix for injurious falsehood. They also seek punitive damages against PDQ and BP for injurious falsehood. In addition, Wandersee asserts claims against PDQ and BP for false arrest or false imprisonment and against Paul and Janet Faix for prima facie tort.
PDQ, BP, and the Faixes all filed motions for summary judgment. The trial court denied the motions for summary judgment as to Wandersee's and ACT's claims for injurious falsehood against PDQ, BP, and the Faixes, and as to Wandersee's prima facie tort claim against the Faixes. The trial court also denied the summary judgment motions as to Wandersee's request for punitive damages from his injurious falsehood claims against PDQ and BP. The trial court granted the motions for summary judgment as to Wandersee's claims for false arrest or false imprisonment against PDQ and BP and for punitive damages from those claims.
BP subsequently applied for a writ of prohibition or, in the alternative, a writ of mandamus. BP argues that the plaintiffs' injurious falsehood claims are essentially defamation claims subject to the two-year statute of limitations in section 516.140 and that the claims were not timely filed. The plaintiffs contend that the injurious falsehood claims qualify for the five-year limitation of section 516.120. This Court issued a preliminary writ of prohibition.
IV.
Section 516.140 enumerates claims that must be brought " ithin two years: n action for libel, slander, assault, battery, false imprisonment, criminal conversation, malicious prosecution or actions brought under section 290.140, RSMo." Section 516.120 provides that a five-year statute of limitations applies to the following claims:
(1) All actions upon contracts, obligations or liabilities, express or implied, except those mentioned in section 516.110, and except upon judgments or decrees of a court of record, and except where a different time is herein limited;
(2) An action upon a liability created by a statute other than a penalty or forfeiture;
(3) An action for trespass on real estate ;
(4) An action for taking, detaining or injuring any goods or chattels, including actions for the recovery of specific personal property, or for any other injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract and not herein otherwise enumerated;
(5) An action for relief on the ground of fraud, the cause of action in such case to be deemed not to have accrued until the discovery by the aggrieved party, at any time within ten years, of the facts constituting the fraud.
BP argues that the plaintiffs' injurious falsehood claims are really defamation claims and, as a result, are barred by section 516.140. The plaintiffs argue that because the tort of injurious falsehood is not expressly included in section 516.140, it instead falls under the five-year catchall provision of section 516.120(4).
V.
BP cites to Sullivan v. Pulitzer Broadcasting Company, 709 S.W.2d 475 (Mo
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