Tort/Negligence – STCA – Statute of Limitations – Prior § 1983 Action – ‘Person’ – Prisons & Jails

The plaintiff-prisoner’s cause of action arose in 2015. In 2018, the plaintiff-prisoner filed a federal action against the defendant-department’s employees in their official capacities. The federal action did not toll the three-year statute of limitations for plaintiff’s claim under North Carolina’s Tort Claims Act because the department, as an agency of the state, enjoys sovereign and Eleventh Amendment immunity and is not a “person” under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Because plaintiff waited more than three years to file his claim against the department, we affirm the Industrial Commission’s dismissal of plaintiff’s claim as untimely.

Watson v. North Carolina Department of Public Safety (Lawyers Weekly No. 012-567-22, 4 pp.) (Chris Dillon, J.) Appealed from the Industrial Commission. Earl James Watson, pro se; Allison Newton for defendant. 2022-NCCOA-897