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Moriarty v. Garden Sanctuary Church of God6/26/2000
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS
Appeal From York County John C. Hayes, III, Circuit Court Judge
Heard May 9, 2000
AFFIRMED
This case presents the novel issues of whether a cause of action based on repressed memory syndrome is viable in South Carolina, and whether an adult who alleges she repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse may bring a timely cause of action under the "discovery rule" contained in S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-535 (Supp. 1999) after recovering the memories.
Amy Ferrell Moriarty sued Garden Sanctuary Church of God (the Church) to recover damages for sexual abuse she allegedly suffered as a young child at a day care center operated by the Church. The circuit court granted the Church's motion for summary judgment, ruling the action was time-barred pursuant to S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-40 (1976) and Doe v. R.D., 308 S.C. 139, 417 S.E.2d 541 (1992). The Court of Appeals reversed. Moriarty v. Garden Sanctuary Church of God, 334 S.C. 150, 511 S.E.2d 699 (Ct. App. 1999). We granted the Church's petition for a writ of certiorari to review that decision and now affirm.
FACTS
We will briefly outline the facts, which are set forth more fully in the Court of Appeals' opinion. Moriarty was born August 26, 1971. She attended the Church's Kiddie Kollege Day Care Center from August 1973, when she was two years old, until May 1976, when she was about 41/z years old. During that period, Moriarty became stubborn and unhappy. She experienced night terrors and grew apprehensive about attending day care. A pediatrician, who was unaware of anything unusual happening at the day care center, told Moriarty's mother not to worry about it.
Moriarty continued to have emotional problems and teachers told her mother that Moriarty did not work up to her potential. She received mental health counseling during her school years. In 1992, Moriarty sought mental health counseling again after she began obsessively counting numbers in her head. She became depressed, missed her nursing classes, slept excessively, and began taking Prozac.
After studying masturbation in her nursing classes, she became obsessed it was abnormal. Her studies and counseling apparently triggered her recovery of the repressed memories. She began to see pictures in her mind of a little girl's hand masturbating a male and in late November 1992, she recognized the hand as her own. Moriarty remembered wearing a particular yellow dress during an episode of abuse, and an old family film not viewed in years showed her wearing that dress. Moriarty recalled particular physical characteristics of the abuser: crooked teeth, bushy eyebrows, and frizzy hair.
She visited each of the locations where she had attended day care and had a "strong reaction" to Kiddie Kollege. Upon review of a series of photographs, she had a "strong reaction" to a picture of one individual who had bushy eyebrows and frizzy hair. Moriarty recalled her abuser used a particular name to refer to his penis. She further remembered her abuser warning her that if she told about the abuse she would be "overtaken by the devil." Moriarty alleged the abuser removed her from supervised rest periods to perform the abusive acts.
The complaint that Moriarty, then twenty-six years old, filed in November 1995 alleged causes of action for negligent infliction of severe emotional distress, invasion of privacy, negligent supervision, and breach of warranty. Moriarty contended she had sued the Church within three years of recovering specific memories of the alleged abuse in late 1992 and 1993, and her lawsuit was timely under the discovery rule contained in S.C
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