“pre-employment” orientation session without pay. Id. at 827. An employee union
brought a class action suit against the company, arguing that the mandatory unpaid
orientation violated state wage and hour laws. Id. at 827-28. As relevant to this appeal,
the court ruled that the three-year statute of limitations of RCW 4.16.080(3) governing
unjust enrichment applied rather than the two-year catchall statute. Id. at 836-38. In
4
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No. 36165-9-III
Silver v. Rudeen Mgmt. Co.
doing so, the court also rejected the employees’ argument that RCW 4.16.080(2) applied.
Id. at 836-37. The court noted that the right being asserted was protected both by law and
statute. Id. at 838. However, not all tort-related actions were governed by the three-year
statute. Id. at 837.
Rudeen argues that where the common law creates a right of recovery and a statute
supplements that cause of action, the three-year limitation statute applies, but where the
statute creates its own new cause of action unrelated to an existing action, the two-year
catchall is applicable. It finds support for this view in the noted comments from SPEEA
and the synthesis of the case law found in Lewis v. Lockheed Shipbuilding &
Construction Co., 36 Wn. App. 607, 676 P.2d 545 (1984). In Lewis, the court found that
an employment discrimination claim based on the Washington Law Against
Discrimination, ch. 49.60 RCW, enforced a “valuable right or privilege enjoyed by
Lewis.” Id. at 612. Canvassing the case authority, Lewis ruled that where a defendant
“directly invades a legally protected interest,” the three-year limitation statute applied.
Id.
Thus, the ultimate question concerns the nature of the right invaded. Silver argues