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Keywords

jurisdictionstatuteappealstatute of limitations
jurisdictionstatuteappealsummary judgmentcorporationnonprofitstatute of limitationsappellantappellee

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Ross v. Colorado Outward Bound School, Inc., 822 F.2d 1524, 40 Ed. Law Rep. 700

Facts

Sonya C. Ross died in a mountain climbing accident in Colorado while attending the Colorado Outward Bound School. Her mother, Luise M. Ross, filed a wrongful death action in New York state court on April 13, 1978, which was later removed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. After a lengthy process, the case was transferred to the Colorado district court, which dismissed it as time barred under Colorado law, asserting that the action was not timely filed.

On July 22, 1977, Sonya C. Ross, then twenty years of age, died in a mountain climbing accident in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. At the time Sonya, a New York resident, was a student at the Colorado Outward Bound School. The school is a Colorado nonprofit corporation which teaches wilderness experience.

Issue

Whether the wrongful death action was time barred under Colorado law due to the statute of limitations.

Whether the wrongful death action was time barred under Colorado law due to the statute of limitations.

Rule

The court applied 28 U.S.C. § 1631, which requires that when an action is transferred between federal courts for lack of jurisdiction, it shall proceed as if it had been filed in the transferee court on the date it was actually filed in the transferor court.

The proper vehicle for the transfer of this action was 28 U.S.C. § 1631 (1982). That statute requires that when, in the interest of justice, an action is transferred from one federal court to another federal court to cure want of jurisdiction, the action shall proceed as if it had been filed in the transferee court on the date upon which it was actually filed in the transferor court.

Analysis

The appellate court determined that the Colorado district court was required to accept the date of removal to the New York district court as the filing date in Colorado. Since the action was removed on May 26, 1978, which was within the two-year statute of limitations period of the Colorado Wrongful Death Act, the court concluded that the action was timely filed.

We hold that § 1631 requires that the Colorado district court apply Colorado law; that it accept the date on which the action was removed to the New York district court as the filing date in the Colorado district court; and that the action shall proceed in the Colorado district court as not time barred by the two year statute of limitations provision of the Colorado Wrongful Death Act.

Conclusion

The appellate court reversed the Colorado district court's judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings, holding that the wrongful death action was not time barred.

We reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the action for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Who won?

Luise M. Ross prevailed in the appeal because the court found that her wrongful death action was timely filed under the applicable law.

Luise M. Ross (“appellant”) appeals from a summary judgment entered June 23, 1986 in the District of Colorado, Richard P. Matsch, District Judge, in favor of Colorado Outward Bound School, Inc. (“appellee”), dismissing a wrongful death action brought by appellant as administratrix of the estate of her deceased daughter, Sonya C. Ross.

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