THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300579
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: RICHMOND
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a South Carolina law that requires lawsuits to be filed within three years of the date by which a person should realize there is a cause for action.
{REST} The plaintiff, identified as Jane Roe, alleged that she was sexually abused by her 13-year-old male cousin in 1952, when she was 4 or 5 years old. She said she repressed the memories until she began having dreams about her cousin abusing her and went to a therapist in 1989.
The woman began remembering specific incidents of abuse in June 1989 and her therapist filed a report of abuse with state authorities in July 1989.
The alleged victim filed a lawsuit against her cousin and aunt on May 5, 1992, slightly more than three years after she began seeing a therapist.
The three-judge appeals panel upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge David C. Norton of Charleston, S.C., that the clock on the statute of limitations began to run when the woman started therapy.
``South Carolina's statute of limitations begins to run when the facts and circumstances would alert an injured person of common knowledge and experience that she might have a cause of action, not that she certainly has one,'' said the opinion by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of Alexandria, Va.
``Plainly, it takes very little to start the clock,'' she wrote.
She ruled that the statute of limitations began to run no later than May 4, 1989, the date of her second therapy session, so the lawsuit was filed one day too late.
{KEYWORDS} RULING LAWSUIT APPEAL SEX ABUSE by CNB