Maybe you have the same nightmare that I do.  You have moved to amend your Complaint to add a new defendant.  The statute of limitations is about to run, but your motion to amend was made before the end of the limitations period.  The problem is that you end up getting the Order allowing your amendment after the statute has run.

Is your addition of the new defendant time barred?  You are probably worried, but you might be thinking that the principle of relation back (contained in NC Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c))  will eliminate your concern. 

Judge Bledsoe shed some light on this very dilemma last week, in his Opinion in Insight Health Corp. v. Marquis Diagnostic Imaging of North Carolina, LLC, 2015 NCBC 50.  It turns out that relation back has nothing to do with my nightmare so long as the motion to amend is filed before the expiration of the limitations period.

This wasn't a groundbreaking step by Judge Bledsoe.  He relied on a NC Court of Appeals opinion more than ten years old, which held that:

the relation back principle only applies where the complaint is amended outside the relevant statute of limitations.  It need not be considered where a pleading is amended before the statute of limitations expires.

Op. ¶14 (quoting Zenobile v. McKecuen, 144 N.C. App. 104, 108, 548 S.E.2d 756, 758, disc. rev. denied, 354 N.C. 75, 353 S.E.2d 214 (2001).

So what is the trigger date for the statute of limitations when a motion to amend is involved?  "The date of the filing of the motion [to amend the complaint to add a new claim], rather than the date the court rules on it, is the crucial date for measuring the period of limitations.  The timely filing of the motion to amend [the complaint], if later allowed, is sufficient to start the action within the period of limitations."  Op. ¶14 (quoting Mauney v. Morris, 316 N.C. 67, 71-72, 340 S.E.2d 397, 400 (1986)(emphasis added).

If you are moving to amend to add a new defendant and you are butting up on the statute of limitations, sleep better on this decision.