MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1999 Regular Session

To: Judiciary A

By: Representative Chaney

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 15-1-49, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO INCORPORATE A STATUTE OF REPOSE IN THE STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS CONTAINED THEREIN; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 15-1-49, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

15-1-49. (1) All actions for which no other period of limitation is prescribed shall be commenced within three (3) years next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after.

(2) In actions for which no other period of limitation is prescribed and which involve latent injury or disease, the cause of action does not accrue until the plaintiff has discovered, or by reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury.

(3) The provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall apply to all pending and subsequently filed actions.

(4) In no event may any action be commenced to recover damages for actions to which this statute of limitation applies more than ten (10) years after the date of the alleged act, omission or negligence.

(5) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (6) and (7) of this section, if at the time at which the cause of action shall or with reasonable diligence first might have been known or discovered, the person to whom such claim has accrued shall be six (6) years of age or younger, then such minor or the person claiming through such minor, notwithstanding that the period of time limited pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall have expired, may commence action on such claim at any time within three (3) years next after the time at which the minor shall have reached his sixth birthday, or shall have died, whichever shall have first occurred.

(6) If at the time at which the cause of action shall or with reasonable diligence first might have been known or discovered, the person to whom such claim has accrued shall be a minor without a parent or legal guardian, then such minor or the person claiming through such minor, notwithstanding that the period of time limited pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall have expired, may commence action on such claim at any time within three (3) years next after the time at which the minor shall have a parent or legal guardian or shall have died, whichever shall have first occurred; provided, however, that in no event shall the period of limitation begin to run prior to such minor's sixth birthday unless such minor shall have died.

(7) If at the time at which the cause of action shall or with reasonable diligence first might have been known or discovered, the person to whom such claim has accrued shall be under the disability of unsoundness of mind, then such person or the person claiming through him, notwithstanding that the period of time hereinbefore limited shall have expired, may commence action on such claim at any time within three (3) years next after the time at which the person to whom the right shall have first accrued shall have ceased to be under the disability, or shall have died, whichever shall have first occurred.

(8) When any person who shall be under the disabilities mentioned in subsections (5), (6) and (7) of this section at the time which his right shall have first accrued, shall depart this life without having ceased to be under such disability, no time shall be allowed by reason of the disability of such person prescribed under Section 15-1-55.

(9) For the purposes of subsection (5) of this section, and only for the purposes of such subsection, the disability of infancy or minority shall be removed from and after the time a person has reached his sixth birthday.

(10) For the purposes of subsection (6) of this section, and only for the purposes of such subsection, the disability of infancy or minority shall be removed from and after the time a person has reached his sixth birthday, or from and after the time such person shall have a parent or legal guardian, whichever occurs later, unless such disability is otherwise removed by law.

(11) The limitation established by subsection (4) of this section as to the ten-year statute of repose applicable to all negligence actions shall apply only to actions the cause of which accrued on or after July 1, 1999.

SECTION 2. The provisions of this act are remedial in nature and shall be applied to all causes of action pending or filed on or after July 1, 1999, including matters on appeal.