Evelyn Loeffler v. The City of O'Fallon

Evelyn Loeffler (plaintiff) appeals the judgment of the St. Charles County Circuit Court, entered in favor of the City of O'Fallon (defendant) on its motion for summary judgment. On appeal, plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in granting defendant's motion for summary judgment because: (1) "plaintiff's action is based on inverse condemnation and therefore [the] ten year statute of limitations applies;" and (2) "plaintiff's action is timely even under a five year statute of limitations." We reverse and remand.

When considering an appeal from an entry of summary judgment, we review the record in the light most favorable to the non-movant. Hubbard v. Lincoln Cty. R-III School Dist., 23 S.W.3d 762, 763 (Mo.App. E.D. 2000). Our review is essentially de novo. Id. "The criteria on appeal for testing the propriety of summary judgment are no different from those which should be employed by the trial court to determine the propriety of sustaining the motion initially." Id. "The propriety of summary judgment is purely an issue of law." Id.

The movant's burden on its motion for summary judgment is to show a right to judgment flowing from facts about which there is no genuine dispute. Id. The movant may establish its right to summary judgment by showing: (1) facts that negate any one of the non-movant's element facts; (2) that the non-movant has not been able to produce and will not be able to produce evidence sufficient to allow the trier of fact to find the existence of any one of the non-movant's elements; or (3) that there is no genuine dispute concerning the existence of facts necessary to support the movant's properly pleaded affirmative defense. Id.

The non-movant must show by affidavit, depositions, answers to interrogatories, or admissions on file, that one or more material facts shown by the movant to be beyond any genuine dispute is, in fact, genuinely disputed. Id. at 763, 764. A "genuine issue" is a real, non-frivolous dispute, that exists "...where the record contains competent materials that evidence two plausible, but contradictory, accounts of the essential facts." Id. at 764. A "genuine issue" is a dispute that is real and not merely argumentative, imaginary, or frivolous. Id.

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Click the case caption above for the full text of the Court's opinion.

Therefore, the statute of limitations on plaintiff's breach of contract claim began to run, at the earliest, on August 1, 1994, when plaintiff received a letter from defendant's insurance company denying liability for the "items [plaintiff] alleged," but allowing plaintiff to submit additional documentation, or, at the latest, on October 4, 1996, when plaintiff was notified by defendant that it declined her "request for payment." Since plaintiff filed her action on June 8, 1999, it was timely under the five-year statute, Section 516.120, and the ten-year statute, Section 516.110.

Judgment reversed and remanded.

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