On February 1, 2018, Angela Brown filed suit against VAALP. She alleged that she had slipped on ice and suffered permanent injury to her body as she was visiting a tenant who lived in the Victoria Arms Apartments, a property controlled by VAALP. The incident had taken place nearly 5 years earlier on February 22, 2013. She alleged that her injuries were a direct result of VAALP’s negligence. The court dismissed Brown’s action in October 2018 without prejudice.
The plaintiff filed an amended petition in December 2018 even though it was outside of the five-year statute of limitations for personal injury actions. The relation back doctrine and Missouri’s savings statute allowed Brown to refile within one year of the dismissal of her initial petition. However, when Brown filed the second time, she included VA Second LP as a defendant, as this was the owner of the property at the time of the incident. Ultimately, the plaintiff named one defendant in the initial petition and the other defendant in an amended petition that was filed outside the statute of limitations. The amended petition included an untimely addition of another party, and did not constitute a substitution of parties with regard to the initial petition. The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld the circuit court’s decision to dismiss the amended petition.
Angela Brown vs. VA Second LP
Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District – WD84077
Statute of limitations refers to the maximum amount of time that a claim can be made against a party following an injury. The length of this period varies depending on the type of claim as well as the law set forth by the legislature at the location of the incident.
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