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Feltmeier v. Feltmeier9/18/2003
system." Belleville Toyota, 199 Ill. 2d at 348-49. Further, this court rejected the notion that Cunningham v. Huffman, 154 Ill. 2d 398 (1993), had adopted "a continuing violation rule of general applicability in all tort cases." Belleville Toyota, 199 Ill. 2d at 347. In Cunningham, this court held that a medical malpractice claim is not barred by the statute of repose where the plaintiff demonstrates that there was a continuous and unbroken course of negligent treatment so related as to constitute one continuing wrong. The Belleville Toyota court distinguished Cunningham, explaining that the result in that case was based on interpretation of the language contained in the medical malpractice statute of repose, and added: "we discern no `unjust results' in the present case, like those we sought to avoid in Cunningham, which would militate in favor of applying a continuing violation rule." Belleville Toyota, 199 Ill. 2d at 347.
In the instant case, Robert cites Belleville Toyota and maintains that "each of the alleged acts of abuse inflicted by Robert upon Lynn over a 12 year period are separate and distinct incidents which give rise to separate and distinct causes of action, rather than one single, continuous, unbroken, violation or wrong which continued over the entire period of 12 years." We must disagree. While it is true that the conduct set forth in Lynn's complaint could be considered separate acts constituting separate offenses of, inter alia, assault, defamation and battery, Lynn has alleged, and we have found, that Robert's conduct as a whole states a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Further, unlike Belleville Toyota, there are " `unjust results' in the present case, like those we sought to avoid in Cunningham, which would militate in favor" of applying the continuing tort rule in an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Belleville Toyota, 199 Ill. 2d at 347.
As did the appellate court below, we find the case of Pavlik v. Kornhaber, 326 Ill. App. 3d 731 (2001), to be instructive. In Pavlik, the court first found that plaintiff's complaint stated a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress, where the defendant's persistent notes, sexually explicit comments, insistence on meetings to discuss his desire for sexual contact and lewd behavior in their employer-employee relationship were such that a reasonable person would perceive them to be sufficiently offensive and sinister to rise to the level of extreme and outrageous behavior. Pavlik, 326 Ill. App. 3d at 744. The court in Pavlik then found that the trial court had erred in dismissing the plaintiff's claim as untimely. While the defendant argued that his sexual advances took place outside the two-year statute of limitations for personal injury , the plaintiff had alleged an ongoing campaign of offensive and outrageous sexual pursuit that established a continuing series of tortious behavior, by the same actor, and of a similar nature, such that the limitations period did not commence until the last act occurred or the conduct abated. See Pavlik, 326 Ill. App. 3d at 745.
We find the following passage, wherein the Pavlik court explains its reasons for applying the continuing tort rule to the plaintiff's action for intentional infliction of emotional distress, to be particularly cogent:
"Illinois courts have said that in many contexts, including employment, repetition of the behavior may be a critical factor in raising offensive acts to actionably outrageous ones. [Citation.] It may be the pattern, course and accumulation of acts that make the conduct sufficiently extreme to be actionable, whereas one instance of such behavior might not be. [Citat
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