Ex parte International Refining & Manufacturing Co. d/b/a IRMCO [Ms. 1130110, June 20, 2014] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2014). A case is governed
by the statute of limitations in existence at the time the action is filed,
not at the time the cause of action accrued. Employees at a manufacturing
plant sued, alleging injuries arising from exposure to toxic and dangerous
chemicals. More than two years after their last exposure, they added new
defendants and alleged wantonness against them. After their cause of action
accrued, but before they added these claims, the Alabama Supreme Court held in
McKenzie v. Killian, 887 So. 2d 861 (Ala. 2004), that the statute of limitations for wanton
conduct resulting in personal injury is six years. In an earlier appeal,
the Supreme Court held that the adding of these defendants did not relate
back to the filing of the initial complaint. After that holding, the new
defendants moved for summary judgment on the wantonness claims, arguing
that the plaintiff's last exposure was more than two years before
McKenzie was decided, and thus that the wantonness claims expired before they were
added. The circuit court denied the motion. The Court first noted that
although mandamus ordinarily will not lie to review the denial of a summary-judgment
motion, mandamus will lie to determine whether a trial court has complied
with an earlier remand order from an appellate court. The new defendants,
however, did not demonstrate that the trial court failed to comply with
a prior mandate, because in the earlier appeal, the Supreme Court had
held that the six-year statute of limitations would apply to the wantonness
claims D and this was so even though, in the meantime, the Supreme Court
overruled
McKenzie in Ex parte Capstone Building Corp., 96 So. 3d 77 (Ala. 2012), in which the Court returned wantonness claims
to a two-year statute of limitations. In another aspect of the opinion,
the Court held that the circuit court had erred in denying the motion
for summary judgment as to conspiracy claims, because those claims were
not subject to the six-year statute of limitations.
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