D.M.S. v. Barber

627 N.W.2d 369, 2001 Minn. App. LEXIS 602, 2001 WL 605100
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedJune 5, 2001
DocketC8-00-2227
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 627 N.W.2d 369 (D.M.S. v. Barber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
D.M.S. v. Barber, 627 N.W.2d 369, 2001 Minn. App. LEXIS 602, 2001 WL 605100 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

OPINION

STONEBURNER, Judge

Appellant D.M.S. argues that the district court erred by dismissing his claims against respondent Professional Association of Treatment Homes (PATH) for injury from sexual abuse that occurred while he was in foster care, as time-barred. Because at the time appellant sued PATH, the statute of limitations had run on his negligence and respondeat superior claims against PATH, we affirm.

FACTS

D.M.S. was born on September 10, 1979. In the late summer of 1992, D.M.S. was placed, through PATH, in the foster home of defendant Kennedy Barber. Barber repeatedly sexually abused D.M.S. and others placed in his care. At least three other persons have pursued legal actions against Barber and PATH for the abuse. D.M.S. reported the sexual abuse to his mother, who reported the abuse to a PATH representative on February 22, 1993. PATH removed D.M.S. from Barber’s home on that day and after that date D.M.S. was not placed by PATH. D.M.S. had additional voluntary contact with Barber, however, and in early 1994, experienced additional abuse in Barber’s car and in Barber’s home, which was still a PATH foster home at that time.

D.M.S. brought this action against Barber and PATH, alleging injury for the sexual abuse under negligence and respon-deat superior claims, but did not perfect service on PATH until June 8, 1999. PATH moved for summary judgment arguing that the negligence-based claims [372]*372were barred by the six-year statute of limitations set forth in Minn.Stat. § 541.073 (1992) and that the respondeat superior claims were barred by the two-year statute of limitations for battery claims set forth in Minn.Stat. § 541.07(1) (1992). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of PATH, and D.M.S. appeals.

ISSUE

Did the district court err in holding that the applicable statutes of limitation barred D.M.S.’s claims against PATH?

ANALYSIS

On appeal from summary judgment, this court determines whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the district court erred in its application of the law. State by Cooper v. French, 460 N.W.2d 2, 4 (Minn.1990). This court must view the evidence “in the light most favorable to the party against whom judgment was granted.” Fabio v. Bellomo, 504 N.W.2d 758, 761 (Minn.1993) (citation omitted). When the district court grants summary judgment based on the application of a statute to undisputed facts, the result is a legal conclusion reviewed de novo by the appellate court. Lefto v. Hoggsbreath Enters., Inc., 581 N.W.2d 855, 856 (Minn.1998). The applicability of a statute of limitations is a question of law reviewed de novo. Benigni v. County of St. Louis, 585 N.W.2d 51, 54 (Minn.1998).

1. Statute of limitations for negligence-based claims

Minn.Stat. § 541.073, subd. 2 (1992) provides:

(a)An action for damages based on personal injury caused by sexual abuse must be commenced within six years of the time the plaintiff knew or had reason to know that the injury was caused by the sexual abuse.
(b) The plaintiff need not establish which act in a continuous series of sexual abuse acts by the defendant caused the injury.
(c) The knowledge of a parent or guardian may not be imputed to a minor.
(d) This section does not affect the suspension of the statute of limitations during a period of disability under section 541.15.

A number of disabilities, including infancy, suspend the running of the period of limitation until the disability is removed, “provided that such period, except in the case of infancy, shall not be extended for more than five years, nor in any case for more than one year after the disability ceases.” Minn.Stat. § 541.15(a) (1992).

D.M.S. argues that Minnesota law is well established that he had until age 25 to bring his negligence action for injury based on sexual abuse, relying on W.J.L. v. Bugge, 573 N.W.2d 677 (Minn.1998) and Bertram v. Poole, 597 N.W.2d 309 (Minn.App.1999), review denied (Minn. Sept. 28, 1999). As in this case, W.J.L. and Bertram involve an interpretation of the six-year statute of limitations for sexual abuse actions together with the statute tolling the statute of limitations for infancy, but this case is distinguishable on its facts.

In W.J.L., a 36-year-old woman brought an action against a former teacher for a sexual relationship that began when W.J.L. was 16 years old and ended about two years later. 573 N.W.2d at 679. W.J.L. alleged that after the sexual contact with Bugge ended, she did not think about or talk to anyone about Bugge’s conduct until 1992, when a book she read triggered her thoughts that she had been sexually abused by Bugge. Id. The issue was whether W.J.L. knew or had reason to know more than six years prior to bringing [373]*373her lawsuit that the alleged abuse had occurred. Id at 680.

“[A]s a matter of law one is ‘injured’ if one is sexually abused.” Id at 681 (quoting Blackowiak v. Kemp, 546 N.W.2d 1, (Minn.1996)). The victim is immediately put on notice of the causal connection between the abuse and the injury so that the statute of limitations begins to run once a victim is abused, unless there is some legal disability such as infancy, that would make a reasonable person incapable of recognizing or understanding that abuse had occurred. Id W.J.L. argued that Blackowiak was wrongly decided. Id W.J.L. contended that she did not recognize, at the time of the abuse, that she had been emotionally injured and “that she was incapable of understanding the nature of the sexual abuse, the extent of her injuries, and the connection between the two until 1992.” Id at 682. The supreme court rejected that argument and held, as in Blackowiak, that W.J.L. had not demonstrated any legal or mental disabilities after infancy preventing her from recognizing or understanding that she had been sexually abused. Id The supreme court treated W.J.L.’s entire infancy as a disability that made her incapable of recognizing or understanding that she had be abused, however, and stated:

Here, absent a disability which serves to delay the running of the statute of limitations, the limitations period under the delayed discovery statute would have begun to run one year after W.J.L. reached the age of majority and expired when she turned 25. W.J.L. does not allege any disability which would have prevented her from pursuing her sexual abuse claims against Bugge within six years of the time she turned 19 years of age.

Id (citation omitted). Because W.J.L. had not brought her action within that time period, the action was time-barred. Id

Bertram

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Related

D.M.S. v. Barber
627 N.W.2d 369 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
627 N.W.2d 369, 2001 Minn. App. LEXIS 602, 2001 WL 605100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dms-v-barber-minnctapp-2001.