Riley, J.
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant-Plaintiff, Aaron Brugh (Aaron), by and through surviving spouse, Rachelle Brugh (Brugh), appeals the trial court’s entry of Orders and Judgment, in which the trial court denied Brugh’s motion to substitute real party in interest and granted Appellee-Defendant’s, Milestone Contractors LP (Milestone), motion to strike appearance of nonparty and motion for judgment on the pleadings, thereby terminating Brugh’s wrongful death action against Milestone.
We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
ISSUE
Brugh presents two issues on appeal, which we consolidate and restate as: Whether Brugh timely substituted herself as the real party of interest in light of our supreme court’s tolling of time limits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
….
Here, Aaron passed away on October 9, 2019, with Brugh filing the wrongful death Complaint against Milestone on January 26, 2021, in her capacity as Aaron’s surviving spouse. Brugh opened a wrongful death estate and was appointed personal representative on January 18, 2022; she filed her motion to substitute real party in interest in this cause on February 8, 2022. Concluding that Brugh’s motion to substitute real party was filed after the expiration of the two-year non-claim period of the IWDS, the trial court granted Milestone’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and dismissed Brugh’s cause.
Advocating that the trial court improperly dismissed her wrongful death action, Brugh contends that she possessed the legal capacity to bring the cause at the moment she was appointed legal representative of Aaron’s estate on January 18, 2022, which, considering the tolling of the time limit instituted by the supreme court’s COVID-19 orders, fell within two years after Aaron’s passing. Focusing on the statutory language of the IWDS and Indiana’s jurisprudence, Brugh contends that “a plaintiff widow’s appointment as the personal representative—in and of itself and without requiring the widow formally to change the caption, or to re-appear—is what must occur during the statutory [two]-year period,” to successfully commence a wrongful death action. (Appellant’s Br. p. 24).
….
Accordingly, based on our opinion in Rogers and the guidance offered in Faris, the legal status of personal representative needs to be obtained within the twoyear timeframe. Because the legal capacity of personal representative of the estate was not attained within two years of the decedent’s passing in Arnett and Hosler, those actions were properly barred. In the cause before us, Aaron passed away on October 19, 2019. Brugh filed the Complaint on January 26, 2021, on behalf of “Aaron Brugh, by and through surviving spouse, [Brugh],” well within the original two-year time limit required under the IWDS. (Appellant’s App. Vol. II, p. 9). However, Brugh did not become the personal representative of Aaron’s estate until January 18, 2022, after the original two-year time limit had passed.
B. COVID-19 Orders
Next, Brugh contends that the COVID-19 orders, issued by our supreme court during the height of the global pandemic, tolled all laws, rules, and procedures setting time limits from March 17, 2020 through August 14, 2020, for a total of 150 days, thereby extending the two-year filing limit of the IWDS and making Brugh’s Complaint timely. In response, Milestone argues that the COVID-19 orders did not expressly address the tolling of a non-claim statute and alternatively, if the statute was tolled, the IWDS tolling ended either on May 19, 2020, after 67 days, or on July 6, 2020, after a total of 111 days.
Generally, the IWDS “is a non-claim statute, not subject to tolling.” Southerland v. Hammond, 693 N.E.2d 74, 77 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998). However, beginning in March 2020, our supreme court issued a number of orders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In those orders, our supreme court authorized “the tolling . . . of all laws, rules, and procedures setting time limits . . . in all other civil . . . matters before Indiana trial courts.” (Appellant’s App. Vol. II, p. 113). While the orders did not specifically provide for the tolling of time limits in non-claim statutes, such as the IWDS, the supreme court similarly did not limit the application of the orders to statutes of limitations. Rather, the orders, by their language, were broad, tolling all laws and rules that set time limits in civil matters. Therefore, the COVID-19 orders were clearly meant to apply to any time limit, including the two-year time limit provided in the IWDS, such that the time limit within which Brugh had to meet the criteria of the statute was extended.
Under Morgan County’s “amended transition plan for expanded operations,” as approved by the supreme court, the tolling applicable to the IWDS terminated on July 6, 2020, resulting in 111 days of tolling. (Appellant’s App. Vol. II, p. 121). A tolling period of 111 days starting on October 9, 2021—the two-year filing deadline under the IWDS—brings us to an expiration date of January 28, 2022. Brugh became the personal representative of Aaron’s estate on January 18, 2022, ten days before the time period lapsed.
Accordingly, Brugh met both conditions of the IWDS statute—by filing her wrongful death action and becoming the personal representative of the estate— prior to the expiration of the time limit as tolled by the supreme court’s COVID-19 orders. The fact that Brugh did not seek to amend the caption to substitute herself as personal representative until after the tolled two-year time limit had expired is not relevant. The action is determined by its substance, not its caption. And, in substance, Brugh timely filed her Complaint, and she timely became the representative of Aaron’s estate.
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, we conclude Brugh timely substituted herself as the real party in interest within the prescribed time limitations of the IWDS, as tolled by the supreme court’s orders. We therefore reverse the trial court’s order and remand with instructions for the trial court to reinstate Brugh’s claim.
Reversed and remanded with instructions.
Bailey, J. and Vaidik, J. concur.