Relation Back Doctrine

The relation-back doctrine involves both the statute of limitations and the amendment of a lawsuit. To be viable, any lawsuit must be timely filed within the applicable statute of limitations. “Statutes of limitation were never intended to be used as swords. Rather, they are shields, primarily designed to assure fairness to defendants by prohibiting stale claims” which tend “to undermine the truth finding process.” Mikesic v. Trinity Luterhan, 980 S.W.2d 68, 73 (Mo. Ct. App. 1998). Technically, an amended lawsuit is treated as a “new” lawsuit, with the prior lawsuit being abandoned and otherwise receiving no consideration.

If a lawsuit is amended outside the statute of limitations, that doesn’t mean the lawsuit is untimely if the suit was initially filed within the correct time frame. The general rule is that “whenever a claim…asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the…occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading, the amendment relates back to the date of the original pleading. Thorson v. Connelly, 248 S.W.3d 592, 595-96 (Mo. 2008).