Boggs v. Adams

• Decision Date: 17 January 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-1066,94-1066
• Citation: 45 F.3d 1056
• Parties: Mary J. BOGGS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles S. ADAMS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1056

45 F.3d 1056

Mary J. BOGGS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles S. ADAMS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 94-1066.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 14, 1994.

Decided Jan. 17, 1995.

Janine L. Hoft, Peoples Law Office, Chicago, IL (argued), for Mary J. Boggs.

Louis G. Hector, Evanston, IL (argued), for Charles Adams.

Before LAY, ^* EASTERBROOK and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

In this diversity case, we are asked to determine whether the Illinois courts would allow a plaintiff a reasonable time to sue following the effective date of a retroactive statute of repose that otherwise would bar the claim. Mary Boggs alleges that Charles Adams sexually assaulted and abused her from 1959 until 1965, but claims she repressed all memory of this abuse until 1989. Ms. Boggs sued Mr. Adams in May 1991, five months after the effective date of the Illinois Childhood Sexual Abuse Act, 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2. The applicable version of this statute retroactively barred lawsuits by plaintiffs who did not file their claims before age thirty. The district court, sitting in diversity and applying Illinois law, granted summary judgment in favor of Mr. Adams on the ground that the plain language of the statute barred the claim of the forty-four-year-old Ms. Boggs. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the case for further proceedings.

I BACKGROUND

A. Statutory Scheme

Prior to 1991, two statutes defined the applicable limitations period for childhood sexual abuse claims in Illinois. The first, 735 ILCS 5/13-202, prescribed a two-year limitations period from the time of injury for personal injury claims. The second, Illinois' minor tolling statute, 735 ILCS 5/13-211, tolled the personal injury limitations period in cases involving people harmed as minors. Under the latter provision, a person injured prior to age eighteen could file suit up to two years after the eighteenth birthday. The net effect of these statutes was that a childhood sexual abuse victim had no statutory right to file suit after age twenty.

Many victims of childhood sexual abuse claimed that they repressed the memories of their injuries until they were more than twenty years old. These individuals argued that Illinois courts should apply the "discovery rule" to childhood sexual abuse cases. This doctrine provides that the limitations period commences when a person knows, or reasonably should know, of the injury, rather than when the harm actually occurs. The Illinois Supreme Court first recognized the rule in a dispute over a surveyor's error, Rozny v. Marnul, 43 Ill.2d 54, 250 N.E.2d 656 (1969), and the state's courts subsequently applied it in a variety of contexts, see Johnson v. Johnson, 701 F.Supp. 1363, 1369 (N.D.Ill.1988) (collecting cases). Courts applying Illinois law began to invoke the discovery rule in childhood sexual abuse cases, thus mitigating the impact of Illinois' personal injury limitations period and minor tolling statute on plaintiffs who had repressed the memories of their abuse. See, e.g., id. at 1370 (discovery rule applied when plaintiff had no memory of the alleged incidents of sexual abuse during her childhood); cf. D.P. v. M.J.O., Sr., 266 Ill.App.3d 1029, 203 Ill.Dec. 950, 952, 640 N.E.2d 1323, 1325 (1994) (collecting cases and describing some aspects of the rule in Illinois); Hertel v. Sullivan, 261 Ill.App.3d 156, 198 Ill.Dec. 574, 578-79, 633 N.E.2d 36, 40-41 (1994) (noting the existence of the doctrine but questioning, without deciding, whether it ought to apply in cases of adult sexual abuse).

On September 7, 1990, Illinois enacted the Childhood Sexual Abuse Act, 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2 ("Abuse Act"), which codified the discovery rule in cases of childhood sexual abuse. ¹ The Illinois General Assembly applied the statute retroactively to all claims pending as of its January 1, 1991 effective date. 735 ILCS 202.2(e). ² Section 202.2(b) of the Abuse Act allowed victims to file suit within two years of the time they discovered their injuries. Significantly, however, this section also contained a statute of repose which stated that "in no event may an action for personal injury based on childhood sexual abuse be commenced more than 12 years after the date on which the person abused attains the age of 18 years." 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(b) (1993). ³ Thus, the new statute barred childhood sexual abuse claims by plaintiffs who were more than thirty years old.

B. Earlier Proceedings

On May 6, 1991, Mary Boggs, a citizen of California, filed this childhood sexual abuse claim against Charles Adams, a citizen of Illinois. Ms. Boggs alleged that Mr. Adams had sexually assaulted and abused her from 1959 until 1965, when she was between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Ms. Boggs claimed that she had repressed her memories of this abuse until May 1989 and that, over the next two years, she had recalled these repressed memories with psychiatric assistance. Ms. Boggs was forty-four years old at the time she brought this action. ⁴

1. The Magistrate's Recommendation

The case was referred to a magistrate judge for a report and recommendation. Mr. Adams sought summary judgment on the ground that the Abuse Act's statute of repose barred Ms. Boggs' claim. Although the magistrate judge recognized that the plain language of the Abuse Act supported Mr. Adams' position, she recommended that the district court deny the motion. The magistrate judge was of the view that Illinois courts recognized an equitable exception to provisions like the statute of repose in the Abuse Act. Under this exception, plaintiffs whose claims would otherwise be cut off could file suit within a reasonable time of the statute's effective date. The magistrate judge therefore recommended that the district court apply this exception to Ms. Boggs' suit because she had diligently investigated her claim and had filed suit only five months after the effective date of the Abuse Act.

2. The District Court's Opinion

The district court rejected the magistrate's recommendation. 838 F.Supp. 1293 (N.D.Ill.1993). The court stressed the difference between a statute of limitation and a statute of repose. It noted that the purpose of a statute of limitation is to ensure that a cause of action is prosecuted within a reasonable period of time. By contrast, a statute of repose is designed to impose a cap on the applicability of the discovery rule in order to ensure that there is an outer time limit on the possibility of suit. In the district court's view, the Illinois legislature had determined The district court recognized that, in Phillips v. Johnson, 231 Ill.App.3d 890, 174 Ill.Dec. 458, 599 N.E.2d 4 (1992), the Illinois Appellate Court had refused to apply the Abuse Act's statute of repose to a claim that was pending on the statute's effective date. ⁵ In the district court's view, the case was not dispositive concerning application of the statute of repose to actions that had not been filed on the effective date of the statute. It noted that Ms. Boggs had filed suit after the Abuse Act's effective date and held that the statute of repose barred her claim. ⁶

that there ought to be an outer cap of age thirty on childhood sexual abuse actions because resolution of such claims depends largely on the memories and the credibility of the parties, two factors that are extremely time-sensitive.

II DISCUSSION

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Transportation Communications Int'l Union v. CSX Transp., Inc., 30 F.3d 903, 904 (7th Cir.1994). We shall affirm the district court if there is no genuine issue of material fact and if the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. Ms. Boggs contends that Mr. Adams was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law because she filed suit within a reasonable time of the Abuse Act's effective date. Mr. Adams responds that summary judgment was appropriate because the plain language of the Abuse Act extinguished Ms. Boggs' claim. ⁷

We start with the language of the applicable version of the statute. The plain language of the Act would seem to bar Ms. Boggs' claim. Ms. Boggs was forty-four years of age at the time she sued Mr. Adams. Section 202.2(b) of the statute prohibits suits by plaintiffs who are over thirty years old. 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(b). Moreover, section 202.2(e) applies this prohibition to claims pending on, or filed after, the statute's January "The general rule in Illinois is that an amendment shortening a statute of limitations will not be retroactively applied so as to terminate a cause of action unless the party has had a reasonable period of time after the amendment's effective date in which to file an action." In re Marriage of Ingram, 176 Ill.App.3d 413, 125 Ill.Dec. 918, 922, 531 N.E.2d 97, 101 (1988). A statutory amendment which either shortens an existing limitations period, or creates a new one, will not apply instantaneously to cut off a cause of action. Potential plaintiffs must have a reasonable amount of time after the statute's effective date to file suit. Id.; accord Moore v. Jackson Park Hosp., 95 Ill.2d 223, 69 Ill.Dec. 191, 193, 447 N.E.2d 408, 410 (1983) (noting that "a statute of limitations which decreases the time in which an action may be filed should not be applied retroactively so as to instantaneously bar ... existing causes of action"). This judicial rule of construction applies even in those instances in which the legislature has expressed an intent that the limitations period be applied retroactively. Phillips, 174 Ill.Dec. at 461, 599 N.E.2d at 7. The courts apply this exception even in the face of clear legislative intent, on the ground that they have a duty to avoid "unreasonable or unjust" results. Hathaway v. Merchants' Loan & Trust Co., 218 Ill. 580, 75 N.E. 1060, 1061 (1905); DeSeve v. Ladd Enters., Inc., 137 Ill.App.3d 796, 92 Ill.Dec. 365, 368, 484 N.E.2d 1220, 1223 (1985).

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