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CALLAHAN v. STATE12/19/1990
Four-year-old Matthew Althaus, deaf and cerebral palsied, entered the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs in 1981. From that time until he left ISD at the age of seven, Matthew was physically and sexually abused by the staff and older students, according to his petition. Despite substantial efforts by Matthew's mother, Julie, to identify the cause of his deviant sexual behavior at home, she did not discover the abuse until 1988, when Matthew disclosed it under intensive counseling. His mother immediately filed a claim against the State under our tort claims act, Iowa Code ch. 25A (1987), seeking damages individually and as next friend for Matthew. See Iowa R. Civ. P. 12.
The State raised the two-year limitation of section 25A.13 and filed a motion for summary judgment on that ground. Julie resisted, urging that under our "discovery rule" the claim was not barred; she did not know, and could not reasonably have discovered, the abuse until 1988. The statute of limitations under section 25A.13, therefore, did not start to run until that time. See Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. v. Rowe, 424 N.W.2d 235, 243 (Iowa 1988); Chrischilles v. Griswold, 260 Iowa 453, 463, 150 N.W.2d 94, 100 (1967).
The district court concluded that the claim was barred by section 25A.13, because Matthew knew immediately that he had been abused and who had abused him. The statute of limitation therefore began to run from the last act of abuse, according to its ruling, and that was beyond the two-year limitation of section 25A.13. The court dismissed the case. On appeal, we reverse and remand.
I. Iowa Code section 25A.13 provides: [464 NW2d Page 270]
Every claim and suit permitted under this chapter shall be forever barred, unless within two years after such claim accrued, the claim is made in writing to the state appeal board under this chapter. The time to begin a suit under this chapter shall be extended for a period of six months from the date of mailing of notice to the claimant by the state appeal board as to the final disposition of the claim or from the date of withdrawal of the claim from the state appeal board under section 25A.5, if the time to begin suit would otherwise expire before the end of such period.
This section is the only statute of limitations applicable to claims as defined in this chapter.
(Emphasis added.) Julie's claim was rejected by the State, and this suit followed.
The key word in section 25A.13 is "accrued." Under the discovery rule, "a cause of action based on negligence does not accrue until plaintiff has in fact discovered that he has suffered injury or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered it. . . ." Chrischilles, 260 Iowa at 463, 150 N.W.2d at 100 (emphasis added). We have not ruled on the question of whether the discovery rule applies to section 25A.13, although in Farnum v. G.D. Searle & Co., 339 N.W.2d 392, 396-97 (Iowa 1983), we assumed the rule would apply, without so deciding.
In Montgomery v. Polk County, 278 N.W.2d 911, 914-16 (Iowa 1979), we held that the discovery rule did not apply to the statute of limitations of the municipal tort claims act, Iowa Code § 613A.5, noting that the time limitation of that section did not commence on "accrual" of the claim:
Chrischilles [which adopted the discovery rule] itself was a private party, common-law negligence action to which the general statute of limitations applied. That statute starts time running when causes of action "accrue." § 614.1, The Code. Section 613A.5 [the Municipal Tort Claims Act], however, does not use that term. Nor does it use a similar term such as "arise." Such terms give limitations
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