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Nixon v. State9/30/2005
section 669.13, bars the plaintiffs' claims. They have given little consideration to the State's argument that the plaintiffs' claims were barred long before suit was filed in 2003, and that events occurring after these claims were barred cannot serve to resurrect them. I am convinced this court's long-standing rules of statutory interpretation and well-established legal principles governing the revival of barred claims compel the conclusion that the plaintiffs' claims are barred as a matter of law.
A. Points of Disagreement
The majority relies on section 669.13 and the discovery rule to conclude the plaintiffs' suit is not time barred. I would agree that if one limits one's consideration to the application of section 669.13, the plaintiffs' claims are not barred. But the State contends the plaintiffs' claims were barred long before this action was filed. It asks the court to examine prior law that it says cut off the plaintiffs' right to bring this suit decades ago. The majority unfairly characterizes the State's contention as asking the court to go back forty years and re-enact a repealed sunrise provision in the original legislation. The majority refuses to do so. They also claim that the repealed provision would not have barred the plaintiffs' claims anyway, even if the court were to consider it. I will address each aspect of the majority's analysis separately.
B. Proper Analytical Framework
I begin with the majority's description of the State's request that the court examine prior statutes to determine the viability of the plaintiffs' claims. Contrary to the majority's statement that the State wants the court to re-enact a repealed statute, the State is merely requesting the court to properly analyze the issue presented by the State's statute-of-limitations defense. That defense requires the court to examine not only the current statute of limitations, but any prior applicable limitations period that may have already expired. See Frideres v. Schiltz, 540 N.W.2d 261, 266 (Iowa 1995).
In Frideres, this court answered certified questions concerning a newly-enacted statute of limitations applicable to claims of sexual abuse. Id. at 263 (referring to Iowa Code section 614.8A (1993)). We stated the following general principles with respect to statutes of limitations:
"'A general rule with respect to statutes of limitations is that the period of limitation in effect at the time suit is brought governs in an action even though it may lengthen or shorten an earlier period of limitation. . . . However, another general rule . . . is that if plaintiff's suit was barred by the running of a statute of limitations prior to the extension of the limitation period, the subsequent statute cannot revive defendant's liability.'"
"This general rule has been followed and further explained by this court and federal courts applying Iowa law. Previously, we have held that the statute of limitations in effect at the time the cause of action accrues is controlling and that the repeal or amendment of a statute of limitations cannot act retrospectively to revive actions previously barred under a prior statute in the absence of express legislative intent."
Id. at 266 (citations omitted) (emphasis added). Applying these principles, this court held that the new statute of limitations for sexual abuse contained in Iowa Code section 614.8A did "not apply retroactively to revive claims that have been barred by an applicable statute of limitations in existence prior to the enactment of section 614.8A." Id. at 267. We noted that " n determining whether a claim has been barred by an applicable statute of limitations, . . . application of the dis
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