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Fila v. Spruce Mountain Inn8/5/2005
PRESENT: Dooley, Johnson, Skoglund and Reiber, JJ., and Allen, C.J. (Ret.), Specially Assigned
1. Plaintiff Virginia Fila appeals from a superior court judgment in favor of defendants Spruce Mountain Inn (SMI) and Candace Beardsley. Plaintiff contends that, in granting judgment as a matter of law in favor of defendants, the trial court: (1) applied an incorrect standard in determining whether plaintiff was incapacitated for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations; (2) erroneously ruled that the question of plaintiff's incapacity was an issue for the court rather than the jury to decide; and (3) mistakenly concluded that plaintiff failed to satisfy the standard for tolling the statute of limitations. We agree with the first two contentions, and therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings.
2. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment, as we are required to do, Gero v. J.W.J. Realty, 171 Vt. 57, 59, 757 A.2d 475, 476 (2000), the essential facts may be summarized as follows. SMI is a residential facility for individuals with psychiatric problems who, in the words of its assistant director, "have had trouble living independently in the community." Plaintiff entered the facility in December 1995. She was twenty-three years old at the time, but already had a long history of psychiatric problems, including nine prior hospitalizations for mental illness. SMI staff acknowledged that during her stay plaintiff was continually troubled by flashbacks, anxiety, and depression, and had at least one dissociative episode.
3. Plaintiff testified that, in late December 1995, while in residence at SMI, she took an overdose of a prescribed sedative, and later awoke to find a male patient in her bed having sex with her. Although the sexual relationship continued briefly thereafter, plaintiff testified that it was nonconsensual and that she did not remember the incidents clearly, suggesting that she was in a dissociative state most of the time. Plaintiff reported the incidents to SMI staff, and the male resident was asked to leave, but plaintiff believed for many years thereafter that she was at fault for the alleged sexual assaults.
4. Plaintiff discovered that she was pregnant in February 1996, and shortly thereafter was compelled to leave the residential program because of insurance problems. She remained under SMI care, however, and SMI staff assisted plaintiff in finding an apartment in the community, arranging medical appointments, and managing her affairs. Despite their assistance, plaintiff became depressed and suicidal and was hospitalized for a week to ten days in April 1996. The following month, plaintiff left the SMI program. Her departure was against medical advice, her case manager taking the view that outpatient therapy was insufficient to meet plaintiff's needs.
5. In September 1996, plaintiff moved with her mother and other family members to North Carolina, where she received substantial assistance from both her family and the state social services agency in obtaining obstetric care and parenting services for herself and her child. Several months after the move, however, plaintiff again required involuntary hospitalization. Indeed, over the next several years, plaintiff was periodically hospitalized on almost fifty separate occasions, an average of about once a month, during which times plaintiff's family assumed full responsibility for her child.
6. In October 2000, plaintiff moved with her mother and sister to New York. Plaintiff testified that while in therapy there she came to understand that she had been sexually assaulted at SMI. She contacted a lawyer and learned that she might have a cla
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