Meiers-Post v. Schafer

Decision Date29 August 1988
Docket NumberMEIERS-POS,Docket No. 96222,P
Citation427 N.W.2d 606,170 Mich.App. 174
Parties, 48 Ed. Law Rep. 947 Jan Marielaintiff-Appellant, v. Robert SCHAFER, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtCourt of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Clark Shanahan, Owosso, for plaintiff-appellant.

Donald A. Peters, Corunna, for defendant-appellee.

Before DANHOF, C.J., and SHEPHERD and BOSMAN, * JJ.

SHEPHERD, Judge.

Plaintiff appeals from the summary disposition of her complaint which alleged damages resulting from a sexual relationship defendant had with plaintiff from approximately 1970 to 1974 while plaintiff was a high school student and defendant a teacher. The trial court concluded that plaintiff's complaint was barred by the statute of limitations. We reverse. We hold that the period of limitation is tolled where the child victim of an illicit sexual relationship psychologically represses the memory of the events and where, after the memory is revived, there is corroboration that the alleged events actually occurred. We do not decide whether a less restrictive rule is justified since the facts presently before us do not necessitate an examination of that issue.

In his deposition, defendant admitted to having sexual intercourse with plaintiff, at various times, between the end of her sophomore year in high school, 1972, and her graduation in 1974. According to defendant, plaintiff began coming to the home of defendant and his then wife to help his wife correct school papers. His wife, too, was a teacher. Thereafter, defendant invited plaintiff to help him in correcting papers and a sexual relationship developed.

Plaintiff filed a complaint on August 28, 1986. In her response to the motion for summary disposition, plaintiff submitted the affidavit of Dr. David Ihilevich, Ph.D., a letter of a Dr. Allan J. Enelow, M.D., and a letter of Joan Brazelton, M.S.W., who interviewed plaintiff. They provided the following record. Dr. Ihilevich's affidavit states:

"2. I have been requested to give an opinion in the following situation: Can a 30 year old professional female, otherwise normal, repress the recollection of a childhood seduction by a male teacher, to the extent that she is not able to pursue her legal remedies for a period of ten years and more following her majority?

"3. The answer is that such a phenomena is possible based upon a defensive mental process known as repression. Our studies have show [sic] that this process functions independently of education or intelligence as measured by various standard tests."

Dr. Enelow's letter states:

"Without actually examining Ms. Post myself, and based on your account of the statements of Ms. Post and the psychiatric records that I reviewed, I find it medically probable that Ms. Post had to repress the painful experience of the guilt-laden sexual relations with her high school teacher and thus was not able to allow the memories to fully enter consciousness or to take any action about it.

* * *

* * *

"She could not have realized that she had a cause of action against her teacher because of the combination of internal psychological factors and the relationship of the high authority teacher to her self-concept of a low status person who must accede to authority. Thus, it is quite understandable that when she witnessed the television program about the sexual exploitation of students by a teacher, the entire episode that had previously been largely repressed came into consciousness and she became aware of all of its implications for the first time."

The letter of Ms. Brazelton, plaintiff's therapist, states:

"I am writing this letter to clarify the diagnosis of our mutual client Mrs. Jan Post. Mrs. Post was seen for an initial intake appointment on July 21, 1986. She reported that two weeks prior she had viewed a television program about a teacher sexually abusing his students. She stated that at the age of 15 she too had been sexually abused by her math teacher. Since viewing the program she was distressed with symptoms of nightmares, sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety, and feelings of guilt. She further stated that she was wanting to be alone and was no longer interested in significant activities. I observed her constricted affect and problems with concentration.

* * *

* * *

"At that time and presently her symptoms support the diagnostic criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

* * *

* * *

"The Post-traumatic feature of the diagnosis is typical of persons who do not have the emotional resources to process the trauma hence deny its existence. Activities or situations that may arouse recollections of the traumatic event are avoided perhaps for years. It is not uncommon that symptoms become intensified when the individual is exposed to a situation that resembles the original trauma (i.e. the television show Mrs. Post viewed on sexual abuse). It is not unusual for the symptoms to emerge after a latency period of months or years following the trauma."

After a hearing on defendant's motion for summary disposition based on the statute of limitations, the trial court dismissed plaintiff's case.

The limitation period for actions for injuries to a person is three years. M.C.L. Sec. 600.5805(8); M.S.A. Sec. 27A.5805(8). The issue before us is whether plaintiff's claim was barred under Michigan law. Normally, the period of limitation on the claim of a child victim does not begin to run until the child reaches the age of eighteen. M.C.L. Sec. 600.5851(1); M.S.A. Sec. 27A.5851(1). That section also provides that if a person is insane at the time her claim accrues, she has one year after the disability is removed to bring the action although the applicable period of limitation has run. M.C.L. Sec. 600.5851(2); M.S.A. Sec. 27A.5851(2) defines "insane" as "a condition of mental derangement such as to prevent the sufferer from comprehending rights he or she is otherwise bound to know." Whether a person is insane for purposes of the above provision is a jury question unless it is incontrovertibly established either that the plaintiff did not suffer from insanity at the time the claim accrued or that she had recovered from any such disability more than one year before she commenced her action. See Makarow v. Volkswagen of America, Inc, 157 Mich.App. 401, 407, 403 N.W.2d 563 (1987).

There are no Michigan cases on point; that is, there are no Michigan cases which consider whether the psychological phenomena known as repression and post-traumatic syndrome can constitute insanity for tolling purposes. As it applies to the tolling statutes, we see three possible factual postures in this case. (1) Plaintiff had repressed all memory of the events of the sexual encounters with defendant and hence was unaware of any possible cause of action resulting from the events. Memories of these events were triggered by the television show and plaintiff immediately sought psychotherapy and, now, legal recourse. (2) The events remained in the backwater of plaintiff's consciousness and plaintiff suffered ongoing psychological difficulties with resulting manifestations in her everyday life. The television show, however, awakened in plaintiff the significance of the events in her high school years and the causal connection between those events and her current psychological problems and she now seeks legal recourse. (3) Finally, plaintiff consciously thought and knew of the acts engaged in by her and defendant but suffered no symptoms. However, the television show triggered a psychological reaction which has resulted in the onset of a series of debilitating symptoms. The pertinent written evidence, the letter and affidavit of the two doctors and the letter of plaintiff's therapist, are ambiguous and the complaint gives no clue as to which theory plaintiff proceeds under.

Although there are no Michigan cases on point, two courts in other jurisdictions have ruled in similar situations. In DeRose v. Carswell, 196 Cal.App.3d 1011, 242 Cal.Rptr. 368 (1987), plaintiff complained that she was sexually abused by her step-grandfather between the ages of four and eleven (1966 to 1973). Specifically, plaintiff alleged that she did not immediately discover her injuries and their causes "due to the nature of the acts of the defendant, and the psychological mechanisms experienced by [plaintiff] to deny, repress and dissociate herself from the underlying events, or to seek therapeutic intervention until within the last six months." 242 Cal.Rptr. 370. In order to defeat the statute of limitations defense, the plaintiff in DeRose invoked the delayed-discovery rule...

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