Dennis R. Richards, Jr. v. Andrew Walker, individually and in his capacity as Chief of Police of the Town of Grantsville Police Department, and Town of Grantsville

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed dismissal of Dennis R. Richards, Jr.'s claims against a police chief and the Town of Grantsville as barred by the applicable statutes of limitations. The court held that the malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent employment claims accrued before the 2016 administrative reversal of Richards's driver's-license revocation and were not saved by the continuing-tort doctrine. The opinion applies the five-step statute-of-limitations analysis from Dunn v. Rockwell.

Holdings

1. The malicious prosecution claim was subject to West Virginia's one-year statute of limitations and accrued no later than June 2012, when Richards received the DMV revocation order; filing suit in November 2016 was untimely.
2. Walker’s failure to appear at the DMV administrative hearings did not constitute a continuing tort that tolled the statute of limitations for Richards’s intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.
3. Richards’s intentional infliction of emotional distress claim was governed by a two-year statute of limitations and was barred because it accrued no later than June 2012.
4. The negligent employment claim against the Town of Grantsville was barred by the two-year statute of limitations.
5. The circuit court properly dismissed the appealed claims under Rule 12(b)(6) because the complaint established that the claims were barred by the statutes of limitations.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Richards's malicious prosecution claim was barred by the one-year statute of limitations.
2. Whether Richards's intentional infliction of emotional distress claim accrued when he received the DMV revocation order or was tolled under the continuing-tort doctrine until the administrative revocation was reversed.
3. Whether Richards's negligent employment claim against the Town of Grantsville was barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations.
4. Whether the circuit court properly dismissed the claims under West Virginia Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).

Disposition

affirmed