Joshua C. Richardson, Appellant v. Municipality of Anchorage, State of Alaska, Anchorage Police Department, Officer…

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of Joshua Richardson's first civil suit as untimely under the two-year personal-injury limitations period, holding his claims accrued no later than July 14, 2010 and that neither mental incompetency under AS 09.10.140(a)(2) nor incarceration-related hardships equitably tolled the statute. It vacated the dismissal of his second suit, however, because a July 12, 2012 deficiency notice and prison legal-mail records created a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the court system effectively received that complaint before the limitations period expired. The court further held that a pro se civil litigant has no right to appointed counsel, that more liberal construction of Richardson's pleadings would not have changed the outcome, and that an evidentiary hearing was required only on the second suit's commencement-date dispute.