Opinion ID: 1911114
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retroactivity of Statute

Text: 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, § 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 Frideres v. Schiltz, 540 N.W.2d 261, 264 (Iowa 1995), in which we interpreted this statute to be not retroactive to revive claims barred by a statute of limitations in existence prior to July 1, 1990, the effective date of section 614.8A.