Sheldon Stephens v. Kevin Clash

796 F.3d 281, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13643, 2015 WL 4635835
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 5, 2015
Docket14-3337
StatusPublished
Cited by84 cases

This text of 796 F.3d 281 (Sheldon Stephens v. Kevin Clash) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sheldon Stephens v. Kevin Clash, 796 F.3d 281, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13643, 2015 WL 4635835 (3d Cir. 2015).

Opinions

OPINION

SMITH, Circuit Judge.'

Plaintiff Sheldon Stephens appeals the dismissal of his claims against Defendant Kevin Clash for injuries resulting from the parties’ sexual relationship while Stephens was underage, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422, 18 U.S.C. § 2423, and state law. The District Court dismissed Stephens’s claims as untimely. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm.

I.

Because the District Cohrt dismissed both Stephens’s complaint and his amended complaint on motions pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), the facts recited here are drawn from those pleadings. Kevin Clash is “an internationally-known puppeteer and voice actor for children’s programming,” best known for his role as the voice of Sesame Street’s Elmo. A42, A52. Stephens and Clash met at a “social networking event for models and actors” in 2004 when Stephens was 16 years old and Clash was approximately 44. A43, A56. According to Stephens, “[f]rom their earliest conversations, Clash led [Stephens] to believe that [Clash] was interested in having a sexual relationship” with Stephens. A44, A54. Clash arranged by telephone on several occasions to have Stephens transported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to New York City by chauffeured car for the purpose of a sexual relationship. The two engaged in a “pattern of sexual activity ... over a period of years.” A44, A54.

Although he was “a compliant victim showered with attention and affection,” Stephens contends that he “did not become aware that he had suffered adverse psychological and emotional effects from Clash’s sexual acts and conduct until 2011.” A45, A55. According to Stephens, because of his “compliance with the sexual relationship” and the “attention and affection” Clash gave him, Stephens “could not reasonably have been expected to know that he had been injured and that Clash had caused his injuries at the time of their sexual contact.” A45, A55.

On the other hand, as stated in the amended complaint, Clash “compelled [Stephens] to engage in sexual contacts by intellectual, emotional and psychological force.” A56. Clash did so by “ingratiating] himself to [Stephens] through [Clash’s] wealth and celebrity with knowledge that [Stephens] wanted to enter the modeling industry.” Id. Taking advantage of Stephens’s “low self-esteem and depression,” Clash then “dominate[d] [Stephens] in a sexual relationship.” Id.

Stephens eventually sued in March 2013 — approximately nine years after the parties’ relationship began, and seven years after Stephens turned 18 in 2006— bringing claims pursuant to 18 U.S.C. [284]*284§ 2255(a)1 as well as a sexual battery claim under state law. Clash moved to dismiss the complaint on statute of limitations grounds, and the District Court dismissed Stephens’s federal claims as untimely. In doing so, the District Court assumed the .discovery rule applied generally to § 2255 claims but held that Stephens’s complaint demonstrated that he “discovered or should have discovered his injury in or before July 2006,” thus rendering his federal claims untimely. A26. But the District Court permitted Stephens to amend his complaint as to his state law claim. The District Court then granted Clash’s second motion to dismiss Stephens’s state law claim as untimely. Applying Pennsylvania’s borrowing statute, 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. Ann. § 5521(b), the District Court looked to New York’s one-year statute of limitations for battery claims, N.Y. C.P.L.R. 215(3), and New York’s tolling statute for claims that accrue during infancy, N.Y. C.P.L.R. 208. Under New York law, Stephens’s sexual battery claim was time-barred. Stephens appeals these dismissals, urging that the discovery rule tolled the statute of limitations for his federal claims and that Pennsylvania’s longer statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse should have applied to his sexual battery claims.

II.

The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332, as well as 28 U.S.C. § 1331 regarding Stephens’s federal claims. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

A.

We first examine whether the discovery rule is applicable to claims brought under § 2255. In general, the discovery rule “tolls the limitations period until the plaintiff learns of his cause of action or with reasonable diligence could have done so” and “is an exception to the usual principle that the statute of limitations begins to run immediately upon accrual regardless of whether or not the injured party has any idea what has happened to him.” William A. Graham Co. v. Haughey (Graham II), 646 F.3d 138, 141, 150 (3d Cir.2011). To determine whether the discovery rule is available, we look to whether Congress intended that the discovery rule would not apply, either “by explicit command or by implication from the structure and text of the statute,” in which case we defer to that directive. William A. Graham Co. v. Haughey (Graham I), 568 F.3d 425, 434 (3d Cir.2009) (quoting Disabled in Action of Pa. v. Se. Pa. Transp. Auth., 539 F.3d 199, 209 (3d Cir.2008)) (internal quotation marks omitted).2 But “[i]n the absence of a contrary [285]*285directive from Congress, we apply the federal discovery rule.” Id. (alteration in original) (quoting Disabled in Action, 539 F.3d at 209) (internal quotation marks omitted).

We begin with the statute’s text. At the time Stephens filed his complaint, § 2255 provided that “[a]ny action commenced under this section shall be barred unless the complaint is filed within six years after under a legal disability, not later than three years after the disability.” 18 U.S.C. § 2255(b) (2012).3 Missing from this text is an explicit command not to apply a discovery rule. Although the statute requires that the complaint be filed “within six years after the right of action first accrues,” id., the text does not expressly foreclose application of the discovery rule. Indeed, confronted with the Copyright Act’s similar language, we held the discovery rule applicable. See Graham I, 568 F.3d at 433 (addressing text providing that “[n]o civil action shall be maintained under the provisions of this title unless it is commenced within three years after the claim accrued” (alteration in original) (quoting 17 U.S.C. § 507(b))); cf. Urie v. Thompson,

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796 F.3d 281, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13643, 2015 WL 4635835, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sheldon-stephens-v-kevin-clash-ca3-2015.