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WOODROFFE v. HASENCLEVER11/22/1995
This case involves an interpretation of Iowa Code section 614.8A (1991), damages for child sexual abuse โ time limitation. Plaintiff filed claims for sexual abuse, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Defendant filed a motion to dismiss all claims; the trial court dismissed the claims for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On order by the trial court, the plaintiff then recast her petition as to the claim of sexual abuse. A summary judgment motion was then filed by defendant and granted by the trial court on the claim of sexual abuse. Plaintiff appeals from these adverse orders and judgment. We affirm.
I. Factual Background
On November 13, 1992 plaintiff, Jeanne Woodroffe, commenced this action against defendant, Everett Hasenclever, claiming damages for sexual abuse, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Woodroffe states the acts complained of commenced when she was one and one-half years old and continued until she was approximately thirteen. She remembered one specific act of sexual abuse as occurring when she was five years old. She names Hasenclever, her uncle, as the perpetrator. At the time of filing her petition, plaintiff was over forty years old, having been born on September 27, 1952.
After seeing a television program on child sexual abuse, Woodroffe consulted psychologist Dr. Michael Hall on March 20, 1985. Hall's notes from this interview state that his patient "is a product of a lot of child-sexual abuse at the age of five by her uncle." Though not named in this note, Woodroffe agrees that this reference is to Hasenclever. At a later interview with Hall, on October 4, 1989, she describes in detail recollections of oral sex forced on her by Hasenclever.
Woodroffe explains that the long delay between her reaching the age of majority and the filing of this suit is the result of her being the victim of "repressed memory syndrome" or "post-traumatic stress syndrome." She cites Iowa Code section 614.8A entitled "Damages for child sexual abuse โ time limitation" as providing extra time for asserting claims such as hers. She argues the statute is retroactive and, if not, the common law discovery rule applies to protect her claim from dismissal under a statute of limitations.
II. Retroactivity of Statute
The summary judgment motion brings to the fore the validity of these arguments. In assessing whether summary judgment is proper, the trial court looks to the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions to see if there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Iowa R. Civ. P. 237(c); Hegg v. Hawkeye Tri-County REC, 512 N.W.2d 558, 559 (Iowa 1994). The trial court here examined these documents in making its decision to grant the summary judgment.
Iowa Code section 614.8A provides as follows:
An action for damages for injury suffered as a result of sexual abuse which occurred when the injured person was a child, but not discovered until after the injured person is of the age of majority, shall be brought within four years from the time of discovery by the injured party of both the injury and the causal relationship between the injury and the sexual abuse.
The legislature also provided that "this Act is applicable to all actions filed on or after the effective date of the Act." 1990 Iowa Acts ch. 1241, ยง 3. The Act became effective on July 1, 1990 as provided by Iowa Code section 3.7(1).
The trial court decided that Iowa Code section 614.8A is not retroactive to revive previously barred claims. We have addressed this issue in F
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