Written by Stephanie G. Cook, Esq.
Edited by Bill Pfund, Esq.
Between March 16, 2020 and July 8, 2020, the Supreme Court issued several “emergency orders” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which tolled all statute of limitations.
Since then, there has been considerable debate as to when the tolling period created by these emergency orders runs. In fact, the courts in Virginia have essentially been split on the issue. See Tinsley v. Clarke, 2022 U.S. Dist. Lexis 56625 (W.D. Va. March 28, 2022) and Proctor v. AECOM, Inc., 2021 U.S. Dist. Lexis 162142 (E.D. Va. August 26, 2021); see also English v. Quinn, 2022 Va. Cir. Lexis 7 (Roanoke City Cir. Court Feb. 7, 2022); but then see Ceriani v. Dionsysus, Inc., 2022 U.S. Dist. Lexis 73499 (E.D. Va. April 20, 2022); Heck v. Guion, 108 Va. Cir. 179 (City of Chesapeake Cir. Court June 4, 2021) and Brown v. State Farm, 107 Va. Cir. 343 (Culpeper County Cir. Court March 11, 2021).
In general, plaintiffs have taken the position that the emergency orders tolled and extended all statutes of limitations. Thus, plaintiffs argued they had an additional 126 days (the time between March 16, 2020 and July 8, 2020) to file their Complaint in a personal injury action. For example, in Virginia, the statute of limitations for a personal injury suit is 2 years. Assume the date of an automobile accident was November 19, 2019. Generally, the time for plaintiff to file his or her suit in such a case would have run by November 19, 2021. However, due to these emergency orders, a plaintiff would likely argue that the limitations period did not run until March 25, 2023 (126 days after November 19, 2021); and thus, he or she had until March 25, 2023 to file a complaint. The defendant, on the other hand, may have filed a plea in bar to any complaint filed after November 19, 2021, arguing that the statute of limitations has run. This is because the defense side of the bar has generally argued that the tolling period created by the emergency orders only operated to extend the statute of limitations for plaintiffs whose 2 year statute of limitations ran during the emergency period (or between March 16, 2020 and July 8, 2020).
This is precisely what happened in English v. Quinn, a circuit court case decided in Roanoke City Circuit Court. Quinn, 2022 Va. Cir. Lexis 7 (Roanoke City Cir. Court Feb. 7, 2022).______ In Quinn, the subject of the suit was an automobile accident which occurred on July 28, 2018 and resulted in personal injuries. The plaintiff, English, did not file a complaint until November 30, 2020. The defendant, Quinn, filed a plea in bar asserting that English had not filed his complaint within the two year statute of limitations or July 28, 2020. Quinn argued that “only a Statute of Limitations that ran during the 126 day period was tolled by the Orders.” In other words, the judicial emergency orders did not extend the limitations period for English’s claim because the limitations period for English’s claim expired outside of the emergency period.
The circuit court agreed with the defendant, Quinn, and found that the tolling provisions applied only to the “Statute of Limitations and deadlines that would expire during the tolling period.” Therefore, the circuit court found English’s claim was time barred and dismissed the case.
English appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed the circuit court’s decision. After analyzing the language of the emergency orders, the Court of Appeals reasoned that these orders “temporarily stopped the running of all statutes of limitations between March 16, 2020 and July 19, 2020.” English v. Quinn, 2022 Va. App. Lexis 603 (Nov. 29, 2022). The Court of Appeals further found that the “orders instructed that the time remaining when the tolling period commenced was to be added after the judicial emergency ended.” Quinn, 2022 Va. App. at 9.
Applying these rulings to the facts in Quinn, the Court of Appeals explained that English had 135 days remaining in the statute of limitations period when the clock stopped on March 16, 2020. (There are 135 days between March 16, 2020 and July 28, 2020, the date the statute of limitations would have run for his case.) Therefore, English was allowed to add 135 days after July 20, 2020 when the clock re-started; and he had until December 1, 2020 to file his complaint.
It will be interesting to see if this decision is appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia. We, at KPM, will keep you posted.