80 Iowa 26 | Iowa | 1890
— The petition shows that on the twenty-seventh day of January, 1887, plaintiff’s intestate, one John Cunningham, was a minor of the age of
Section 2529 of the Code provides that actions founded on injuries to the person may be brought within two years “after their causes accrue, and not afterwards, except when otherwise specially declared.” Section 2535 provides that the time limited for such actions “ shall, in favor of minors, as defined by this Code, and persons insane, be extended so that they shall have one year from and after the termination of such disability within which to commence said actions.” Appellant contends that, as the deceased was a minor, resting under disability to maintain an action in his own name, at the time of the injury, and so continued until his death, he did not become vested with a complete right of action during his lifetime; that the statute of limitations will not begin to run until there is a person who has the legal capacity to sue and be sued; that the imperfect right of action of the deceased survived to his estate, and was perfected by the appointment of the administrator; that the operation of the two-years limitation of section 2529 to which we have referred was suspended by the provisions of section 2535. Numerous authorities are cited in support of these claims, but, in our opinion, few, if any of them, are in point, for the eason that rthe determination of the question involved
The fact that the owner of such cause of* action is a minor when it accrues will not prevent the running of the statute. Section 2535 provides that in such a case the time limited by the statute “shall be extended,” and not that the statute shall be suspended for one year from and after the termination, of the disability. See Mathews v. Stephens, 39 Iowa, 280. In this case the liability of defendant was complete when deceased received the injuries which resulted in his death. The guardian of his estate, had there been one, might then have commenced an action in behalf of the minor to recover the damages in question. Upon the death of the minor, his claim for damages, as personal property, passed to his legal representative, but subject to the provision of section 2527 that it should be deemed to have accrued to such representative at the time it did to him. No exception is made in the case of a minor, and we know of no reason for one. An administrator of the estate of a minor is appointed as readily as in
Affirmed.