Hildebrand v. Hildebrand

• Decision Date: 07 May 1990
• Docket Number: No. IP 89-159-C.,IP 89-159-C.
• Citation: 736 F. Supp. 1512
• Parties: Susan HILDEBRAND, Plaintiff, v. William HILDEBRAND, M.D., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana

736 F. Supp. 1512

Susan HILDEBRAND, Plaintiff, v. William HILDEBRAND, M.D., Defendant.

No. IP 89-159-C.

United States District Court, S.D. Indiana, Indianapolis Division.

May 7, 1990.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Joseph I. Cronin, Minden, Nev., and Gayle M. Phelps and Thomas A. Fara, Indianapolis, Ind., for plaintiff.

Gil I. Berry, Jr., Buck, Berry, Landau & Breunig, Indianapolis, Ind., for defendant.

ENTRY

BARKER, District Judge.

On March 8, 1989, plaintiff Susan Hildebrand ("Susan") filed a four-Count Amended Complaint against her father, Dr. William Hildebrand ("Hildebrand"), alleging that he physically and sexually abused her when she was a minor. In his Answer, Hildebrand denies the allegations, and pleads as an affirmative defense that Susan's allegations, even if true, are barred by Indiana's two-year statute of limitations for personal injuries.

On April 12, 1990, the court heard oral argument on the case, during which the plaintiff conceded that her claims in Count I for assault and battery were time-barred, and agreed to merge the Count III claim for punitive damages with the Count II claim for emotional distress. In addition, the plaintiff has charged her father with parental negligence in Count IV. The matter is currently before the court of the defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment.

The legal standard governing summary judgment is familiar: summary judgment shall be entered if

the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Rule 56 is designed to go beyond the pleadings to determine whether genuine issues of material fact exist. A genuine issue of material fact exists when "there is sufficient evidence favoring the nonmoving party for a jury to return a verdict for that party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Puckett v. Soo Line Railroad Co., 897 F.2d 1423 (7th Cir.1990). Doubts about the sufficiency are resolved in favor of the nonmovant, Rodeo v. Gillman, 787 F.2d 1175, 1177 (7th Cir.1986), and all justifiable inferences are drawn in favor of the nonmovant. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. at 2513; Davis v. City of Chicago, 841 F.2d 186, 189 (7th Cir.1988).

FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS

Mr. Hildebrand concedes, for the purposes of his Motion, the factual allegations contained in Susan's complaint. Susan alleges that her father physically and sexually abused her from 1968, when she was five years old, until 1979, when she was a senior in high school. The episodes of physical abuse began in 1968, and were often triggered by Susan's failure to measure up to her father's expectations. These "failures," ranging from coloring outside the lines of a coloring book to not understanding her father's explanations to homework problems, provoked her father to beat Susan with a ping-pong paddle (which broke when Susan was eleven years old) or a leather belt. Susan further alleges that her father systematically beat her for getting unsatisfactory grades at school.¹ Susan also relates that the defendant struck her in the face with his fist on numerous occasions.

The alleged sexual abuse began when Susan was thirteen or fourteen years old. Susan asserts that her father accosted her "almost continuously" to fondle her breasts and genitals, and further alleges weekly episodes of more severe sexual conduct, the details of which it is unnecessary to recount.² The abuse continued until Susan was seventeen years old, when she no longer lived at home.

Susan acknowledges that she suffered from depression during her adolescence, and she now attributes that depression to the abuse she was subjected to. When Susan was still a minor, Dr. Hildebrand allegedly diagnosed her as having "a chemical imbalance in the brain," and medicated her with anti-depressants.³ Susan believed that her father's diagnosis of her depression was correct.

The last alleged act of abuse happened in November of 1979, when the plaintiff was seventeen. Following an argument at the breakfast table, Dr. Hildebrand allegedly knocked the food and dishes off the table, and "struck Susan violently across the face and neck causing her head to strike a wall."⁴ Later that morning, Susan's teacher discovered a "lump" on Susan's head, and "the proper authorities were contacted."⁵ After telling a police detective about the physical and sexual abuse, Susan was placed in a guardian's home for two weeks, and from there went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Vehorn. The Vehorns were friends of the Hildebrands, and Susan stayed with them until April or May of 1980.

This violent episode precipitated the first psychological counseling Susan ever received.⁶ Although the record is not clear on this point, it seems that a counsellor— Ms. Linda Ferreira—was assigned to the Hildebrands, and Susan met with Ms. Ferreira individually, and in joint sessions with her parents, on a weekly basis until Susan went away to college in August of 1980. The plaintiff did not discuss the alleged episodes of physical and sexual abuse with Ms. Ferreira, but assumed that Ms. Ferreira had materials on file which detailed those episodes.

In August of 1980 Susan left Indianapolis to attend college at Indiana University in Bloomington. Susan met a young woman named Cara Woods during her freshman year, to whom she confided that her father had physically and sexually abused her. Although Susan did not provide details of the abuse, she and Ms. Woods did discuss the "emotional aspects of our lives."⁷ Susan was experiencing depression and low self-esteem, so she sought professional help, and in September began to see Dr. Nicolitti on a weekly basis. By December of 1980, this counseling had made little progress, so Susan contacted Ms. Ferreira who referred her to the Psychological Services at Indiana University. There she was first treated by Mary Kelly, and afterwards by Kelly's supervisor, Dwight Noble. This counseling lasted until the end of the school year, when Susan returned to Indianapolis for the summer.

Susan did not live with her parents in the summer of 1981 because she "did not wish to be a part of that environment."⁸ At that time Susan again met with Ms. Ferreira for counseling. Upon returning to school in the fall of 1981, Susan resumed counseling with Mr. Noble about her depression and her relationship with her parents. This counseling lasted until May of 1982, and recommenced in the fall of 1982 when Susan returned to Bloomington again. Susan met with Mr. Noble until the spring of 1983.

During Susan's third year at college her depression became disabling, and she felt too depressed to get out of bed. Consequently her grades that year "were awful"⁹ and she did not return to school the next year. Susan spent the following summer in Florida, where she consulted a psychologist named Jim Bratt to help her deal with her depression and sense of worthlessness, which had been exacerbated by a recently contracted case of herpes. Susan also felt that her depression had led her to engage in "inappropriate" sexual behavior.¹⁰ She continued to meet with Mr. Bratt until August of 1983, and that November she moved to Decatur, Illinois. From the winter of 1983 until the summer of 1984,¹¹ Susan met with psychologist Sarah Schilawski to receive counseling on her depression.

Susan moved to Boulder City, Nevada in September of 1984, and the following January began to get counseling from a psychologist named Robert Taylor. Susan testified that she was still combatting the same feelings of depression, although as she grew older her feelings "would change slightly with my place in life and what issues I was faced with at that time."¹² Susan continued to meet with Mr. Taylor until October of 1985, when she moved to California. In June of 1986 Susan began participating in group counseling for people with problems in their sexual relationships. This counseling was managed by a psychologist named Noel Lande, and was discontinued when Susan moved to Las Vegas in February of 1987.

In March of 1987, Susan first met a psychologist named Evelyn Hall. Susan enjoyed a better therapeutic relationship with Ms. Hall than she had with her previous psychologists, and it was at their first session that Ms. Hall told Susan that Susan was suffering from "post-traumatic stress disorder." Susan met with Ms. Hall once a week for one and a half to two years, and still meets with her on occasion. It was not until her first session with Ms. Hall, on March 9, 1987, that Susan for the first time connected her depression with the sexual and physical abuse she had sustained during childhood.¹³ Susan brought suit against her father within two years after making this connection.

DISCUSSION

The question before this court is whether the plaintiff's action is barred by the statute of limitations. The court recognizes that incest and sexual abuse are major social problems in today's society. See National Legal Resource Center for Child Advocacy and Protection, Child Sexual Abuse: Legal Issues and Approaches, (rev. ed. 1981). When legal issues involve such sensitive, volatile areas, it is particularly important for courts not to let the emotional impact of the alleged facts obscure the applicable legal principles.

In diversity suits, a federal court must apply the substantive law of the forum in which it sits, including the forum state's statutes of limitations. Walker v. Armco Steel Corp., 446 U.S. 740, 745, 100 S.Ct. 1978, 1982-83, 64 L.Ed.2d 659 (1980); Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U.S. 99, 109, 65 S.Ct. 1464, 1470, 89 L.Ed. 2079 (1945); Anabaldi v. Sunbeam Corp., 651 F.Supp. 1343, 1344 (N.D.Ill.1987). Therefore this court looks to Indiana's statutes of limitation and the case law interpreting them to resolve the present...