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Cloud v. Summers12/13/1999
A federal district court dismissed Darrell Cloud's section 1983 civil rights claim against the Seattle Public School District arising from childhood sexual abuse by Darrell's former teacher, Neal Summers, ruling that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations. In the same federal action, Darrell had invoked federal supplemental jurisdiction for state claims against the School District for, inter alia, negligent supervision and retention of its employee, Summers. Darrell's parents, In-grid and William Cloud, brought a state claim against the School District in the same federal action for wrongful interference with the parent/child relationship. And in the same federal action, Darrell and his parents also brought state claims against the co-personal representatives of the Summers Estate for injuries arising from Neal Summers' childhood sexual abuse of Darrell.
After the federal district court dismissed Darrell's civil rights claim on summary judgment, the parties agreed that that there was no reason for the state claims to remain in federal court. Accordingly, the federal court denied supplemental jurisdiction over the state claims and dismissed them without prejudice.
Darrell and his parents then filed their state claims against the School District and the Summers Estate in King County Superior Court. The superior court granted summary judgment dismissing the claims against the School District based on collateral estoppel and the running of the statute of limitations, and dismissing the claims against the Summers Estate based on the Clouds' failure to timely file notice of their claims with the personal representatives.
The Clouds appeal the dismissal of their state claims. We affirm the dismissal of the claims against the Summers Estate; those claims are forever barred because the Clouds failed to timely file notice of their claims in the King County probate proceedings. We reverse the dismissal of the claims against the School District. Although the section 1983 civil rights claim arose from the same facts upon which the state claims against the School District are based, collateral estoppel does not apply because the federal court was obliged to apply federal common law to determine the accrual of the civil rights claim for purposes of the statute of limitations, and Washington's discovery rule as applied in childhood sexual abuse cases differs substantially from the federal common law upon which the federal district court relied.
FACTS
Neal Summers was a teacher at Whitman Junior High School in the Seattle Public School District. Darrell Cloud who alleges that Neal Summers sexually abused him commencing in 1983 when he was a 13-year-old student at Whitman and continuing for months and years thereafter shot and killed Summers on January 31, 1994. After his arrest, Darrell was found incompetent to stand trial. He was hospitalized until he returned to competency following drug therapy and counseling. He was convicted of first degree murder and is currently serving his sentence.
Darrell, who once was a good student and talented athlete, flunked out of college and became dysfunctional in virtually every aspect of his life, eventually sliding into psychosis, commencing in 1992 3 years after he turned 18. His psychiatrist attributed Darrell's mental illness to sexual abuse by Summers.
The Clouds brought their federal and state claims in federal district court in 1994. In its ruling dismissing the section 1983 claim, the federal court explained that "the statute of limitation for a {federal civil rights} claim is the same as that for general personal injury claims sounding in tort in the state in which the claim
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