USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 1 of 8
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 22-12833
Non-Argument Calendar
____________________
KIMBERLY K. SISIA,
Individually and on behalf of others
similarly situated,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE
INSURANCE COMPANY,
Defendant-Appellee.
____________________
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 2 of 8
2 Opinion of the Court 22-12833
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
D.C. Docket No. 1:21-cv-02376-ELR
____________________
Before JORDAN, BRANCH, and GRANT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Georgia’s renewal statute can rescue previously filed claims
from statutes of limitations if the claims are sufficiently similar and
have not been decided on their merits. Because Sisia met these
requirements for some—but not all—of her claims, we affirm in
part and reverse in part.
I.
Kimberly Sisia alleges that she was injured in a 2009 car
crash. Her insurance policy with State Farm Mutual Automobile
Insurance Company entitled her to “reasonable medical expenses
incurred for bodily injury.” Sisia sought treatment for her injuries,
including $4,853 in chiropractic care and $3,195 for physical
therapy. She claims that State Farm only paid for $1,254 of the
charges, leaving $6,794 unpaid.
To resolve this appeal, we must analyze three complaints.
Sisia first sued State Farm in 2012 in Georgia state court—her
original complaint. A year later, Sisia filed a “First Amended
Complaint” in the same case. After State Farm moved for
summary judgment on the original complaint and to dismiss the
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 3 of 8
22-12833 Opinion of the Court 3
second, the state court issued a somewhat counterintuitive ruling.
It dismissed all the claims in the amended complaint but allowed
what remained in the original complaint to continue, deciding that
Sisia had not “abandoned her original Complaint when she filed
the First Amended Complaint” but instead “intended to further
expand her claims.”
In parsing the complaints, the state court found differences
between the claims. In its view, the amended claim (although
entitled “Breach of Contract”) alleged only that the insurance
policy language was “illusory.” The court decided the policy
language matched “applicable statutory language,” so it dismissed
any claim “that the policy language at issue is ‘illusory’” on the
merits. It also dismissed the state law class action count and a count
for attorneys’ fees. But the court reasoned that the original claim—
which the court characterized as a claim “to recover her medical
damages under the policy”—presented issues of material fact. This
claim for medical expenses survived the court’s order.
For some reason, the state action stalled. In 2021—about
nine years after first suing—Sisia voluntarily dismissed the case and
refiled in federal court. But she faced a hurdle: Georgia has a six-
year statute of limitations for breach of contract claims. 1 O.C.G.A.
§ 9-3-24. To get around this limitation, Sisia relied on Georgia’s
1 Whether Sisia’s theory of breach of private duty sounds in tort does not affect
our analysis because tort actions have an even shorter limitations period. See
O.C.G.A § 9-3-33.
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 4 of 8
4 Opinion of the Court 22-12833
renewal statute, which permits a plaintiff to dismiss a case and refile
in federal court “within the original applicable period of limitations
or within six months after the discontinuance or dismissal.”
O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(a).
The federal district court still dismissed the case as time-
barred. It decided that Sisia’s “current breach of contract claim
constitutes an attempt to revive the previously adjudicated”
illusory policy claim from her amended complaint. As a result, it
also denied as moot Sisia’s motion for class certification. The court
later denied both her motion to reconsider and motion to amend
her complaint. Sisia now appeals.
II.
We review de novo the application of a statute of
limitations. United States v. Maher,
955 F.3d 880, 884 (11th Cir.
2020). We review a court’s denial of a motion for reconsideration
or for leave to amend for abuse of discretion. See Marti v. Iberostar
Hoteles y Apartamentos S.L.,
54 F.4th 641, 646 (11th Cir. 2022);
Green Leaf Nursery v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co.,
341 F.3d
1292, 1300 (11th Cir. 2003).
III.
Under Georgia law, a “properly filed renewal action stands
on the same footing as the original action.” Coen v. Aptean, Inc.,
356 Ga. App. 468, 470 (2020) (quotation omitted). So “if a renewal
action is properly filed within six months after dismissal of the
original action, it remains viable even though the statute of
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 5 of 8
22-12833 Opinion of the Court 5
limitation may have expired.”
Id. (quotation omitted). No one
disputes that Sisia refiled within six months after she voluntarily
dismissed her state case.
Instead, the parties debate the effect of the state court’s
dismissal of the amended complaint. Georgia’s renewal statute
contains a logical constraint: it cannot revive cases or claims that
were previously “decided on their merits.” 2 Patterson v. Douglas
Women’s Ctr., P.C.,
258 Ga. 803, 804 (1989). In fact, a suit or claim
is “void and incapable of renewal” if “there has been a judicial
determination that dismissal is authorized.” Hobbs v. Arthur,
264
Ga. 359, 360 (1994). But if the renewed and original case are
“substantially the same both as to the cause of action and as to the
essential parties,” the statute permits renewal. Coen, 356 Ga. App.
at 470 (quotation omitted).
That background provides a deceptively simple rule for this
case: whatever claims the state court dismissed from the amended
complaint may not be renewed, but any claim substantially similar
to the original complaint may be renewed in this federal action.
See Hobbs,
264 Ga. at 360 (noting that a case may be renewed
2 The “decided on their merits” limitationapplies as much to claims as cases;
otherwise, claims could be “miraculously revived as long as they are re-filed
within six months of dismissal of the entire case”—an “absurd result.”
Anderson v. S. Home Care Servs., Inc., No. 13-0840,
2017 WL 10574069, at *2
(N.D. Ga. Mar. 31, 2017) (quotation omitted).
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 6 of 8
6 Opinion of the Court 22-12833
“unless and until the trial court enters an order dismissing a valid
action”).
Here is the complication: all three complaints share similar
elements. As the district court recognized, the federal complaint
mentions (more than once) legal arguments similar to those Sisia
advanced as part of her claim that the policy was “illusory.”
Because the state court dismissed this claim on the merits, it is
ineligible for renewal.
At the same time, Sisia’s original claim for unpaid medical
expenses survived. And in this respect, the federal complaint is
“substantially the same” as the original. The original describes
Sisia’s policy, her accident, and State Farm’s alleged refusal to pay
for her medical expenses. So does the federal complaint. To
recover these expenses, Sisia pressed three theories: “Breach of
Contract,” “Breach of Private Duty,” and “Breach of Duty of Good
Faith and Fair Dealing.”
The Georgia Supreme Court has emphasized for over a
hundred years that the renewal statute is “remedial in nature; it is
construed liberally to allow renewal where a suit is disposed of on
any ground not affecting its merits.” Hobbs,
264 Ga. at 360; see
also Clark v. Newsome,
180 Ga. 97, 100 (1935); Cox v. Strickland,
120 Ga. 104, 112 (1904). Sisia’s original and amended complaints
are not models of clarity—if anything, they are models of
confusion. The complaints often conflate causes of action and
argument, forgo common pleading conventions, and haphazardly
deploy legal vocabulary. Yet Sisia dismissed her medical expenses
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 7 of 8
22-12833 Opinion of the Court 7
claim voluntarily. The merits of her case—whether State Farm
owed her money under the contract—were never adjudicated.
Given the “remedial” nature of O.C.G.A. § 9-2-61(a) and its liberal
construction, Sisia could thus renew her claim for medical expenses
using the three theories of recovery explicitly set forth in her
federal complaint. 3
But because the state court already dismissed the amended
complaint, Sisia may not renew any legal theory or claim that the
policy is “illusory.” That has been decided on the merits. To the
extent that the federal complaint tries to revive this theory, we
affirm the district court’s conclusion that it is time-barred.
Finally, we agree with the district court that Sisia’s renewed
medical expenses claim is not otherwise barred by claim
preclusion. Under Georgia law, the “entry of a judgment as to one
or more but fewer than all of the claims” is not a final judgment
and so may not invoke claim preclusion, unless the court expressly
says otherwise. Wise v. Ga. State Bd. for Examination,
Qualification & Registration of Architects,
244 Ga. 449, 449 (1979)
(quotation omitted). 4 Here the medical expenses claim remained
pending until Sisia voluntarily dismissed it. No final judgment
exists and claim preclusion is unavailable.
3 The legal sufficiency of these three theories is not before us on appeal.
4 A federal court applies state law when asked to give preclusive effect to a
state court judgment. Kizzire v. Baptist Health Sys., Inc.,
441 F.3d 1306, 1308
(11th Cir. 2006).
USCA11 Case: 22-12833 Document: 26-1 Date Filed: 04/18/2023 Page: 8 of 8
8 Opinion of the Court 22-12833
* * *
We AFFIRM only the dismissal of any “illusory policy”
theory in this case and REVERSE the court’s dismissal of Sisia’s
other claims. We DISMISS as MOOT Sisia’s appeals of her motion
to reconsider and motion to amend her complaint. We REMAND
for the court to consider Sisia’s motion for conditional class
certification and for further proceedings consistent with this
opinion.
