Court Opinion

ID: 9756005
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:02:24.42168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:13.631968
License: Public Domain

RUIZ, Associate Judge,
dissenting:
I would reverse the grant of summary judgment based on the expiration of the statute of limitations because there are material questions of fact in dispute relating to when Hendel knew, or through the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, that she had a claim against MIU.
A cause of action generally accrues at the time the alleged injury occurs. See Bussineau v. President & Dirs. of Georgetown College, 518 A.2d 423, 425 (D.C.1986). The discovery rule is applied, however, to determine when a cause of action accrues, and the statute of limitations commences to run, in circumstances “where the relationship between the fact of injury and the alleged tortious conduct ... [is] obscure.” Id. Clarifying the relevant legal test to be applied in determining accrual under the discovery rule, Bussineau stated that “one must know or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should know (1) of the injury, (2) its cause in fact, and (3) of some evidence of wrongdoing.” Id. at 435. When applying this test “the inquiry is highly fact-bound and requires an evaluation of all of the plaintiffs circumstances.” Diamond v. Davis, 680 A.2d 364, 372 (D.C.1996).
To prevail on a motion for summary judgment, MIU must demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Super. Ct. Civ. R. 56(c); Colbert v. Georgetown Univ., 641 A.2d 469, 472 (D.C.1994) (en banc). We review the record de novo, applying the same substantive standard of review utilized by the trial court. See Walton v. District of Columbia, 670 A.2d 1346, 1353 (D.C.1996); Colbert, supra, 641 A.2d at 472. The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to Hendel as the non-moving party, and she is entitled to “all favorable inferences which may reasonably be drawn from the evidentiary materials.” Beard v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 587 A.2d 195, 198 (D.C.1991).
The trial court applied the discovery rule, but found that Hendel was on notice as to all of her claims before September 1, 1986; therefore, the trial court determined that MIU was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.1 Hendel argues, however, that the dis*669covery rule tolled the statute of limitations until December of 1988, the time when she left MIU,2 which would mean that Hendel’s complaint, filed in 1989, was timely filed. If, as a matter of law, Hendel’s cause of action accrued prior to September 1, 1986, as the trial court found, Hendel’s complaint was properly time-barred. If, on the other hand, there is a genuine' issue of material fact in dispute as to whether Hendel’s cause of action accrued on or after September 1, 1986, as Hendel contends, MIU was not entitled to summary judgment based on the expiration of the statute of limitations. I conclude that to find that Hendel must have been aware of her claims prior to September 1, 1986, it is necessary to make, inferences unfavorable to Hendel and to disregard evidence in the record favorable to Hendel. This is improper at the summary judgment stage because it usurps the role of the jury.
In view of our de novo review of summary judgment and the “highly fact-bound” nature of the discovery rule inquiry, it is necessary to scrutinize the record as a whole. The record indicates that Hendel first became aware of MIU and its programs by attending an introductory session on transcendental meditation (TM) at her junior high school student assembly in 1971, when she was fourteen years old. Later that year' she participated in and learned a fifteen-minute TM meditation technique. Hendel attended her first TM residential course around 1972. After the initial exposure to TM in junior high school, Hendel became an ardent follower of MIU’s practices. . At some point around 1975 Hendel dropped out of high. school and moved out of her family’s home. She trav-elled to various places in the United States and around the world in the cause of TM and TM-Sidhi, until she left MIU in 1988. Throughout the seventeen years during which Hendel practiced TM techniques, ten years of which included four to eight hours of meditation a day, MIU was responsible for training Hendel and supervising her progress.3
Hendel alleges that MIU’s misrepresentations of its programs and her participation in MIU’s TM and TM-Sidhi programs caused her serious physical and emotional injuries, as well as set her back in terms of her opportunities for economically rewarding employment.4 MIU argues, and the trial court agreed, that Hendel had an early knowledge of her injuries. In support of its ruling, the trial court twice cited Hendel’s answers to Interrogatories, particularly the answer to Interrogatory nineteen, which among other things, asked Hendel to describe any examination or treatment she received for any illness listed in her answer to Interrogatory eighteen and to provide the name of the health care providers and dates of treatment.5 Her answers contain the names and *670addresses of forty-two health care providers that she saw between 1977 and 1989 and refers the reader to her medical records. In response to subsection (e) of Interrogatory nineteen, which asked Hendel to identify any health care professional who “concluded that any of the alleged injuries, illnesses or disabilities set forth in the answer to Interrogatory No. 18 were the result of any conduct or statement by defendants,” Hendel wrote “Yes,” for twenty-seven of the health care providers, at least seventeen of whom she had consulted before 1986. With respect to five others she saw between 1984-87, she responded that “I don’t recall at this time.”
The majority agrees with the trial court’s interpretation of Hendel’s answers to mean that Hendel not only consulted numerous health care providers but that a number of these providers “concluded that her problems were the result of the defendants’ alleged conduct and the Plaintiffs practice of TM.” Applying an objective standard, the trial court concluded that as a result of these consultations Hendel “would have acquired sufficient information” to bring her claim before September 1, 1986. Later in its order the trial court summarized Hendel’s answer to Interrogatory nineteen and concluded:
It can reasonably be inferred that these medical and health care professionals imparted sufficient facts and advice to Diane J. Hendel to put a reasonable person on notice that her alleged injuries, psychological and physical, were causally related to her practice of Transcendental Mediation and her participation in the TM-Sidhis program. Thus, by any objective standard she should have known facts during this time period sufficient to justify the filing of the claims which she did not ultimately file until September 1,1989.
(Emphasis added.)
I disagree with the trial court’s and the majority’s reading of Hendel’s answer to Interrogatory nineteen. In particular, her response to subsection (e), is anything but clear. It is not apparent that by answering ‘Tes,” Hendel meant to indicate that the health care providers listed informed her at the time of the visit, or gave her sufficient information to put her on notice that her injuries were a result of her participation in MIU’s programs. The trial court inferred ‘Tes” to mean that the providers gave Hen-del enough information linking her practice of TM to her injuries. This inference is unfavorable to Hendel, and is therefore improper in considering summary judgment. See Sherman v. District of Columbia, 653 A.2d 866, 869 (D.C.1995). Further, it is not supported by other evidence of record.6
*671In addition to Hendel’s medical consultations, the trial court also cited numerous exchanges in Hendel’s deposition testimony where she noted that she was having “problems” while practicing the TM-Sidhi program in 1979 as indicative of her knowledge of her injuries more than three years before she filed her complaint.7 All of Hendel’s answers are inconclusive at best and insufficient, at this stage of the proceeding, to support a finding that Hendel was on notice of her claims prior to September 1, 1986. Although Hendel acknowledges that she started to experience problems after beginning the TM-Sidhi program, when asked if at the time she was practicing TM and TM-Sidhi she related the problems to the practices, she replied she “wasn’t sure,” but she felt that “unstressing” was causing the problems. Hendel stated that when she started the TM-Sidhi program in 1979 she was aware that other people also experienced uncomfortable feelings during “unstressing.”
Being aware of when physical and mental changes and “problems” started to occur, however, is not the same as saying that Hendel, or a reasonable person in Hendel’s circumstances, would relate the problems she was experiencing to some tortious conduct associated with the practice of TM as taught by MIU. Hendel alleges that when she mentioned these unpleasant changes and experiences to MIU instructors, including the head of the program, Mahesh Yogi, these individuals insisted that the effects were beneficial. In her affidavit Hendel alleges:
3. I had complete reliance on [MIU] for news. When I went to [MIU] about my “problems,” [MIU] said something good was happening, that I was purifying. [MIU] interpreted hallucinations as “celestial perceptions”; they interpreted my world, including every symptom I was experiencing. [MIU] never acknowledged that I had any “problem” such as anxiety, disorientation, confusion, insomnia. On the contrary, [MIU] assured me that these “symptoms” were beneficial signs of “un-stressing,” and that I was progressing toward higher consciousness.
* * * *
8. Lapses in memory, and other such mental states that I now consider problems, were, while I was in the TM movement, not characterized by me or other TM adherents as “problems” or “injuries.” Indeed, Maharishi Yogi taught that development of consciousness was superior to intellectual processes, and especially for meditators like me, my goal was meditation, and that other mental activities, such as memory, were irrelevant. Therefore, what I view in retrospect as mental problems, such as memory problems, were then considered by me and others, as instructed by the TM organization, as a positive state.
Hendel’s answer to Interrogatory eleven indicates a similar reliance on MIU and reassurance from MIU that her physical and mental changes were in the normal course of the TM experience:
Mahesh Yogi continually repeated that discomfort and negative experiences were good. Specifically, he stated that hallucinations, headaches, head pressure, depression, physical movements, vision problems, rage, violence, mood swings, disorientation, forgetfulness, lack of energy, ringing in the ears, seeing light in the head with eyes closed and blackouts were good experiences. He always stated “something good is happening” whenever questioned by TM participants who were having these experiences. He further stated that these experiences were necessary and were the result of TM and unstressing. He always advised individuals to endure and be strong and courageous.
The trial court apparently concluded that Hendel knew that TM caused unfavorable reactions because Hendel “aeknowledge[d] *672hearing that people who were practicing the sidhis or TM “were flipping out’ in the late 1970s and in, spite of that she went on to become a teacher of TM.”8 As was the case with the changes she herself had experienced, however, Hendel did not acknowledge ■that the practice of the TM-Sidhi program would be harmful to her students.9 Reading the deposition as a whole, and making reasonable inferences in Hendel’s favor, as we must, Hendel’s statements indicate that although Hendel was aware of a rumor that certain people who practiced TM “flipped out,” she did not believe the rumor to be true as apparently she did not include herself in the group of teachers who were “teaching with the knowledge that the practice would not be helpful.” Her affidavit restates this position a little differently: “Even though I and other meditators had heard rumors that some individuals were ‘flipping out,’ we understood, within the context of the TM organization, that the individuals were unstress-ing, a normal by-product of the practice of TM.”
The trial court also concluded that Hendel was put on notice regarding her allegations of fraud and negligent misrepresentation when she did not attain promised results within the time period that had been specified for their attainment. . Hendel’s complaint alleges that MIU fraudulently and negligently represented that the practice of TM would, among other benefits, reduce stress, improve memory, reduce depression, anxiety and emotional disturbances, promote better social relations, lead to the attainment of personal enlightenment, confer the ability to promote world peace and improve society. Some or all of the benefits, including enlightenment, were to be attained two or three years after beginning the practice of TM.
The trial court treated Hendel’s statement in her deposition that she did not reach enlightenment within two or three years and did not know of anyone who had, as a concession sufficient to put her on notice of her claim of fraud. Undermining the trial court’s view, however, is Hendel’s testimony that she was repeatedly told that she needed to meditate harder or participate in a new course in order to attain the promised results. In addition, she also indicated that MIU changed the definition of “enlightenment,” thereby making it more difficult for her to know how and when she would attain it.
The trial court similarly noted that other promises made, but not kept, by MIU put her on notice of the potential fraud claims against MIU well before 1986. Specifically, Hendel was promised that the practice of TM would not change her lifestyle, but Hendel admitted that many things did change after she started practicing TM and TM-Sidhi.10 Hendel admitted she did not attain the benefit of improved memory and even began to experience problems with her memory. In addition, Hendel never achieved the promised ability to fly, become invisible or walk through walls and never knew anyone who could do these things.11
Understandable as the trial court’s skepticism of Hendel’s claim of ignorance at the time may be, it is up to the jury to resolve *673disputed issues of material fact and credibility. It is evident from the record that there is a dispute as to when Hendel connected the problems she was experiencing with MIU’s alleged tortious conduct. The trial court correctly noted that Hendel’s actions had to be viewed against an objective standard. The precise question, however, is what a reasonable person would have done under Hendel’s circumstances. See Diamond, supra, 680 A.2d at 372. The record reveals that Hendel’s circumstances were rather special; what would have been obvious to others may not have been clear to her.
In a similar case, Kropinski v. World Plan Executive Council U.S., 272 U.S.App. D.C. 17, 863 F.2d 948 (1988), the court upheld the denial of the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on a fraud claim based on the statute of limitations because the district court “properly concluded that it was for the jury to decide when Kropinski discovered or, under the exotic circumstances of this case, should have discovered the fraud.” Id. at 24, 853 F.2d at 955. Like Hendel, Kropinski had engaged in the practice of TM for numerous years and alleged that when he mentioned the changes to his physical and mental state MIU reassured him that “something good was happening.” Id. Kropinski noted that a plaintiff in such circumstances might be “lulled” into inaction, and stated that “the running of the statute is tolled beyond the discovery date if the tortfeasor reassures the victim that the negative effects should be expected as part of the treatment, and if a reasonable person would believe such reassurances.”12 Id. In assessing the circumstances relevant to a person’s knowledge, we consider the person’s reliance on individuals they trust. See Diamond, supra, 680 A.2d at 372. Hendel was not only a dedicated practitioner and teacher of TM; she became an adherent at an early age when she may have been more susceptible than most to rely on facially incredible claims and assurances. Because there are material facts in dispute, I would reverse the summary judgment granted on the ground that Hendel’s claims were barred because she must have had knowledge of her claims prior to September 1, 1986.

. It is not disputed that Hendel's action must be brought within three years "from the time the right to maintain the action accrues." D.C.Code § 12-301(8) (1995). On September 1, 1989, Hendel filed a seven-count complaint against MIU alleging: unfair trade practices under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act, D.C.Code §§ 28-3901-3905 (1996) (Count I); fraud and fraud in the inducement (Count II): negligent misrepresentation (Count III); negligence and willful and reckless negligence (Count IV); intentional infliction of emotional distress (Count V); professional negligence (Count VI); and, that defendants “acted intentionally, maliciously, willfully, and/or in reckless disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of plaintiff" sufficient to support punitive damages (Count VII).

. Hendel also argues that the continuous tort doctrine tolled the statute of limitations. As I would deny summary judgment applying the discovery rule, I do not address the continuous tort argument.

. The record indicates that the practices involved in TM and TM-Sidhi are a form of meditation. Yogic flying, which Hendel also practiced and is • alleged as a cause of her injuries, is apparently a technique learned during the TM-Sidhi program that involves hopping while in a cross-legged position.

. In the record Hendel describes her injuries as follows:
By the practice of TM, I have problems with disassociation; I have problems with distortions and perception; I have memory problems; I have chronic pain in my knees and my back, especially in cold weather. I have difficulty concentrating. I have difficulty comprehending. I have problems in handling stress. I have a tendency to get sporadic cases of amnesia under intense stress.
I have difficulties telling the difference between what is real and what is not real. I have problems distinguishing nighttime from daytime at times. I have problems with insomnia. I have severe nightmares. I have no advanced education, I didn't complete my BA, I have not had time to practice a career, according to those of my peer group, I have earned very little money, I am not — I have difficulty getting jobs, I have an untraceable resume, and you can read my complaint and interrogatories.

.Interrogatory eighteen reads as follows:
With respect to each injury, illness or disability, whether physical, mental, psychological or emotional which plaintiff allegedly received or suffered as a result of the practice of TM or the actions of any or all of the defendants describe the following:
a. The date such injury, illness or disability was sustained,
*670b. The nature and extent of the injury, illness or disability,
c. Whether or not plaintiff has fully recovered from the injury, illness or disability,
d. The nature and extent of any remaining injury, illness, or disability.
Interrogatory nineteen reads as follows: Describe all examinations, treatments, evaluations, or other care or attentions you have received from physicians, surgeons, osteopaths, chiropractors, clinics, hospitals, psychiatrists, psychologists or other health care professional for any injury, illness or disability stated in Interrogatory No. 18 and identify:
a. Each health care provider,
b. The date or dates of examination, treatment or evaluation,
c. The nature, purpose and extent of each such examination, treatment or evaluation,
d. The prognosis made by said health care professional and
e. Any health care professional described above in subpart (a) who concluded that any of the alleged injuries, illnesses or disabilities set forth in the answer to Interrogatory No. 18 were the result of any conduct or statement by defendants.

. In her deposition Hendel was asked who told her that her insomnia was caused by her practice of TM. She replied, "The doctors that I listed earlier.” The trial court cited this answer to support its inference that the doctors Hendel saw prior to 1986 told her that the practice of TM was related to her injuries. The record does not make clear, however, the identity of the doctors to whom Hendel referred or when she saw these doctors.
Further, Hendel’s affidavit states that MIU has: alleged that from 1980 to 1983, 17 doctors had told me that my alleged injuries were attributable to TM. However, these doctors, whom I list in Answer to Interrogatories # 11 [sic, 19], were either (1) TM "doctors," such as Dr. Tri Guna, who prescribed powders for dysentery and "unstressing”, etc., (2) acupuncturists or chiropractors who treated me for ongoing dysentery problems, or knee and back problems, from "Yogic flying,” or (3) medical professionals whom I consulted about ongoing dysentery problems, such as Kavin Cahill, M.D., a parasitologist.

. At one point during the deposition, Hendel indicated that she had problems with her memory, judging distances and handling stress and that she has had all of these problems since she started the TM-Sidhi program in 1979. Later in the deposition Hendel was asked if she had any problems with unstressing or any psychological or emotional problems during the courses. She indicated that she had; her problems included being anxious, disoriented, confused and she had nightmares and insomnia. During her deposition Hendel discussed having some type of seizure while in India sometime around 1980 during a lunch break from her Vedic Science course.

. The trial court's view is based on the following exchange:
Q. [Y]ou heard rumors that people who were practicing the sidhis or TM were flipping out; is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And you knew that in the late '70s; is that correct?
A. Yes.

. The following exchange occurred immediately preceding the statement relied on by the trial court:
Q. Was there anyone else who was a teacher of TM or the TM sidhis programs that you believed was teaching with the knowledge the practice would not be helpful?
A. Yes.
Q. Who else?
A. Everyone I know.
* * # * * He
Q. Did that include yourself?
A. I didn’t believe so at the time.

. As noted earlier, Hendel began to experience difficulty remembering things and judging distances and had problems handling stress after starting to practice TM-Sidhi.

. In her deposition Hendel referred to an article in an Indian newspaper she read while in India during 1980-81 about problems with dishonesty of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The trial court also relied on this information in concluding that Hendel was on notice of her claims for fraud and misrepresentation.

. Here, the trial court concluded that the evidence Hendel presented to support a lulling theory was insufficient to create a material issue of fact. Again, the trial court relied on Hendel's ambiguous answer to Interrogatory nineteen. The trial court stated:
[Hendel] consulted at least 17 health care professionals between 1980 and 1985 in India, Colorado, New York, Washington, D.C., Silver Spring, Md., Alexandria and Annandale, Va„ Iowa and in California. The extent of this travel and consultation with health care professionals certainly afforded her the opportunity to have consulted with a lawyer and to have brought a lawsuit long before September 1, 1986. It also undercuts thoroughly the claimed basis for an estoppel or lulling theory to apply.