Opinion ID: 2052527
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Fager v. Hundt

Text: In Fager v. Hundt, 610 N.E.2d 246 (Ind. 1993), this Court was asked under what circumstances a plaintiff could bring a claim of childhood sexual abuse against a parent outside of the statute of limitations period. The plaintiff in Fager alleged that she had only recently discovered the connection between her parent's intentional felonious conduct and the injuries she incurred. She brought her claim twenty-two years after the alleged abuse occurred, fifteen years after attaining the age of majority. See id. at 248. The defendant in Fager asserted that the plaintiff's claim was barred by Indiana Code § 34-1-2-5, which disallows claims arising from childhood injuries unless brought within two years of attaining the age of majority. [1] The plaintiff urged this Court to apply the discovery rule and toll this statute of limitations because she was unable to discover the cause of action until the period of limitations had run. This Court declined to apply the discovery rule, instead finding that in cases where the plaintiff claims repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse, the doctrine of fraudulent concealment should be available to the plaintiff to estop the defendant from asserting the statute of limitations. Id. at 251. Fraudulent concealment is an equitable doctrine that operates to estop a defendant from asserting the statute of limitations as a bar to a claim whenever the defendant, by his own actions, prevents the plaintiff from obtaining the knowledge necessary to pursue a claim. See id. (citations omitted). In Fager, we held that this doctrine should be available to the plaintiff to estop a defendant from asserting the statute of limitations `when he has, either by deception or by a violation of duty, concealed from the plaintiff material facts thereby preventing the plaintiff from discovering a potential cause of action.' Id. When this occurs, equity will toll the statute of limitations until the equitable grounds cease to operate as a reason for delay. See id. at 251; Burks v. Rushmore, 534 N.E.2d 1101, 1105 (Ind.1989). Where an adult plaintiff alleges that a parent engaged in tortious conduct against the plaintiff as a child, the plaintiff has the burden of establishing that the parent engaged in intentional felonious conduct and must invoke the equitable doctrine by pointing to facts showing that her lack of memory resulted from a concealment caused by the defendant's deception or breach of duty. Fager, 610 N.E.2d. at 252. The equitable grounds cease as a reason for delay when that person, once becoming an adult, knows or should have discovered that a childhood injury was sustained as a result of the defendant's tortious conduct. Id. at 251. A plaintiff claiming that repressed memory caused a delay in filing suit against his or her parent must therefore show that the defendant's breach of duty or wrongful conduct such as deception caused them to repress the memory of the intentional felonious conduct, and must also show that the claim was brought within a reasonable amount of time after the memories were recovered. This framework was introduced for the first time in Fager. The defendant in Fager had asserted a statute of limitations defense in a motion for summary judgment. We found that the plaintiff had failed to meet her burden of pointing to those acts of the defendant which triggered the fraudulent concealment exception. We also found that because plaintiff submitted no affidavits or depositions of qualified witnesses providing expert opinion to support the scientific validity of repressed memory and to establish that her normal powers of perception and recollection had been obscured by the phenomenon as a result of her father's sexual acts with her, she was unable to show that the fraudulent act actually delayed the commencement of her claim. Id. at 252. However, because the doctrine of fraudulent concealment was unavailable to the plaintiff at the time she brought her claim, the case was remanded for reconsideration.