Douglas v. York County, 05-1940.

• Decision Date: 28 December 2005
• Docket Number: No. 05-1940.,05-1940.
• Citation: 433 F.3d 143
• Parties: Kristin DOUGLAS, a/k/a Tina Beth Martin, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. YORK COUNTY; York County Sheriff's Dep't; Unknown Defendants Deputy Sheriffs, Defendants, Appellees, York County Sheriff, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

433 F.3d 143

Kristin DOUGLAS, a/k/a Tina Beth Martin, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. YORK COUNTY; York County Sheriff's Dep't; Unknown Defendants Deputy Sheriffs, Defendants, Appellees York County Sheriff, Defendant.

No. 05-1940.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard November 8, 2005.

Decided December 28, 2005.

Thomas F. Hallett, with whom Thomas Hallett Law Offices was on brief, for appellant.

Michael J. Donlan, with whom Verrill Dana, LLP was on brief, for appellees.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, STAHL, Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

The question presented is whether a civil rights action brought in May 2002, for events thirty years before, was brought too late under Maine's statute of limitations, or whether the statute of limitations was tolled by the plaintiff's mental illness.

The plaintiff, Kristin Douglas, alleges that she was gang raped by male prisoners in the fall of 1971 when she spent 10 days in the York County Jail in York, Maine. In the face of a clear statute of limitations problem, Douglas argues that at the time of the attack, and during a nearly twenty-five-year period thereafter, she was mentally ill within the meaning of the Maine tolling statute, Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 853. Section 853 provides that if a person "is a minor, mentally ill, imprisoned or without the limits of the United States when the cause of action accrues, the action may be brought within the times limited herein after the disability is removed." Id. By judicial construction, the term "mentally ill" in the tolling statute "refers to an overall inability to function in society that prevents plaintiffs from protecting their legal rights." McAfee v. Cole, 637 A.2d 463, 466 (Me.1994) (emphasis in original).

The plaintiff brought two claims. The first was under state law for "negligence or misconduct of [the sheriff] or his deputies." The applicable statute of limitations for this state law cause of action is four years. Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 851. The second claim was brought under the federal civil rights laws, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988. Since there is no federal statute of limitations for federal civil rights actions, courts look to the state limitations period for personal injury actions. See Centro Medico del Turabo, Inc. v. Feliciano de Melecio, 406 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.2005) (citing Owens v. Okure, 488 U.S. 235, 240-41, 249-50, 109 S.Ct. 573, 102 L.Ed.2d 594 (1989)). The Maine statute of limitations for personal injury actions is six years. Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 14, § 752. Thus Douglas would have to show that she was mentally ill within the meaning of § 853 until at least 1998 for the state law cause of action and 1996 for the federal cause of action.¹

The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the ground that a reasonable fact finder could not conclude that Douglas was mentally ill under § 853 at all points before 1996. We affirm.²

I.

We give the core facts, taking all reasonable inferences in favor of Douglas. In the fall of 1971, Douglas was arrested for traffic violations and spent ten days in the York County Jail. The jail allowed male trustee prisoners to have access to the keys to all the cells, including her cell. While she was incarcerated in the York County Jail, a trustee prisoner used his key to enter her cell and rape her, and then let in three other inmates to rape her as well; these rapes continued for three or four days.

After being released from jail, Douglas traveled to New York for an abortion. Her pregnancy was a result of the rapes. After the abortion, Douglas went to stay with a friend in Newton, Massachusetts, until after Thanksgiving of 1971. Douglas stole a car in Massachusetts and drove to Colorado, where she had spent some time earlier. Douglas got a job as a chambermaid in Aspen, Colorado, where she stayed until March or April of 1972. She then moved to California; on her way there, she stole another car and sold the one she had earlier stolen in Massachusetts. In California, Douglas was arrested for stealing clothes and food; she spent six months in the San Bernardino jail.

After she was released in 1972, Douglas drove to Vermont in a Jeep she had stolen in Arizona. In Vermont, she was arrested for stealing a gun. Upon her arrest, the authorities discovered the stolen car. She pled guilty to both crimes and was sentenced to six months in local jail for theft of the gun and a maximum of six years in federal prison for theft of the Jeep. Douglas spent time in three different federal prisons. In each prison, she worked for the prison dentist as a dental assistant. She also helped her fellow inmates fill out forms so that they could receive credit for time served. Because of disciplinary problems, her sentence was extended. All told, she spent five years in jail, from 1973 to 1978.

After her release in 1978, Douglas spent some time in San Francisco — six months in a halfway home and then another four or five months in a shared apartment, where she held jobs and paid rent. Sometime after September of 1979, Douglas moved to Austin, Texas, where she held a number of odd jobs, including as a paralegal at a legal aid clinic for two months and as a delivery person for an alfalfa sprouts farm for under a year. In 1980, Douglas returned to California, where she would spend the next few years. During this time she rented a succession of apartments in the San Francisco area and lived with roommates. She began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which she continued to attend sporadically over the next ten years.

Douglas lived in San Francisco for part of this period. She first took a part-time job at a vegetable warehouse, loading, unloading, and moving vegetables. While working there, she obtained an emergency medical technician certificate from a community college. Then, for nearly a year in 1983 or 1984, Douglas worked at a transportation company, where she drove elderly people to various locations.

In the fall of 1985, Douglas began a one-year dental assistant program at the City College of San Francisco. She completed this program, and after doing fill-in work for a number of dentists, she began working as a part-time dental assistant for Dr. John Fairchild. She quit after less than a year because she was not making enough money. She then worked as an apprentice sheet metal worker for under a year, and then again as a dental assistant, this time with the University of California Dental School, for about a year.

Around 1990, Douglas moved to Marin County, California. She attended college classes in Marin; she also worked for Dr. John Johnson, an oral surgeon, for about two and a half years. She then left her job and did not pursue new employment as a dental assistant because she had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, which precluded her from taking a position where she was in contact with other people's blood.

In 1993, the plaintiff moved in with a woman named Renie Lindley. After moving a few times around Northern California, Douglas and Lindley moved to Hawaii, where they currently live. Douglas has paid and continues to pay rent to Lindley.³

On two occasions over the years, Douglas hired attorneys to aid her in pursuing legal claims. In 1992, Douglas hired an attorney to represent her in a worker's compensation claim. In 1994, she hired another attorney to assist her with the appeals process for her Social Security disability benefits. Douglas has maintained a checking account continuously since 1971, with the exception of the period she was in jail.

Douglas has received psychological treatment, off and on, since 1982, but has never been committed to a psychiatric hospital. In 1995, she was diagnosed with chronic depression by Dr. Hazem Hashem. She also was diagnosed by two separate doctors as suffering from bipolar disorder. She was later examined by expert witnesses, as described below.

II.

This is the second time the case has been before this court. See Douglas v. York County (Douglas I), 360 F.3d 286 (1st Cir.2004) (remanding the case).

To support her tolling argument, Douglas has relied heavily on the opinion of her expert, Dr. Diane Schetky, a forensic psychiatrist. Dr. Schetky conducted forensic evaluations of Douglas on October 15, 2000, November 13, 2000, and November 22, 2002, and relied on Douglas' medical and psychiatric record. Dr. Schetky diagnosed Douglas with "Bi-Polar Disorder with a current depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Mixed-Personality Disorder, with borderline, dependent and anti-social features." According to Dr. Schetky's affidavit, Douglas' pre-existing depression was exacerbated by the rapes and "[s]he went on to develop typical signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to the rapes." Dr. Schetky concluded as follows: "It is my impression that only recently (2000), with the help of treatment of her depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, has she been strong enough to contemplate bringing a lawsuit for the rapes.... Given Ms. Douglas' low level of functioning in general, it would have been impossible for Ms. Douglas to have gathered enough emotional and psychological strength to proceed forward in any type of lawsuit concerning the jail house rapes."

The defendants countered with an affidavit from their own expert, Dr. Carlyle Voss, a psychiatrist who examined Douglas in October of 2002 and reviewed Douglas' medical history. Dr. Voss stated: "Since the alleged rapes in 1971, Ms. Douglas' psychological disorders have not resulted in an inability to function in society in a way that prevented her from protecting her legal rights. This is most notably established by [her] holding several jobs after the alleged rapes, living independently, and participating in a wide range of life activities." Dr. Voss' affidavit also states: "Ms. Douglas did not report any direct effect of the rapes on the pre-existing post-traumatic stress...