Courtroom Success 2014: 30; Boston Partner Grace Garcia and Associate Allison Goldberg

Courtroom Success 2014:  30;  Boston Partner Grace Garcia and Associate Allison Goldberg recently obtain dismissal of a $500,000 claim in the Essex Superior Court based on a statute of limitations argument. In a case arising out of a fire at a storage facility, plaintiff, who had contracted to have her possessions stored, sued several parties including our client, a demolition company who allegedly caused the fire. Three years and a week after the fire, plaintiff filed her Complaint for negligence, conversion, and emotional distress. In arguing that her filing was timely, plaintiff alleged that the discovery rule applied since her loss was inherently unknowable. Specifically, although plaintiff allegedly went to the facility after the fire to look for her property, spoke with the entity that had stored her property, and spoke with our client who was performing the demolition work, she was unable to determine that her property had been damaged until about a week after the fire. As such, plaintiff claimed that she timely filed the case within three years of knowing of the damage. In granting the Motion to Dismiss, Judge Lowy determined that although the plaintiff may not have known about her loss, such did not equate to the harm being “inherently unknowable,” and thus the discovery rule was inapplicable.