Court Opinion

ID: 9819243
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:20:52.16454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:11:28.380512
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RATHJE, specially concurring: While I agree with the majority’s conclusion that this case should be reversed and remanded for further proceedings, I do not agree with some of the reasoning used by the majority in reaching this result. Rather than modify M.E.H. ’s conclusion that all child sexual abuse is a sudden traumatic event, the majority attempts a difficult balancing act, in which it gives plaintiff another chance to overcome defendant’s motion to dismiss, while sidestepping the sudden traumatic event element of the M.E.H. opinion. As noted by the majority, the M.E.H. court concluded that the discovery rule does not toll the statute of limitations in the instances of child sexual abuse because such abuse is a “sudden traumatic event,” which puts the injured party on notice that actionable conduct might be involved. M.E.H., 283 Ill. App. 3d at 251. It is noteworthy that the M.E.H. court does not appear to cite any specific legal and/or psychiatric authority for its conclusion. In the context of the allegations in the plaintiffs’ third amended complaint, it is difficult to see how M.E.H.’a “sudden traumatic event” rule would be applicable in the instant case. The complaint’s allegations are as follows. Plaintiff was born on August 27, 1967. Late in October of 1972 or 1973, defendant Kuhl, wearing the uniform of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, befriended plaintiff, her sister Teresa, and her mother. At that time, Kuhl began to molest plaintiff and Teresa. This abuse occurred about two times a week for approximately four years, until plaintiff was eight or nine years old. Kuhl employed emotional coercion rather than force or violence to achieve his ends. By essentially stating that all child sexual abuse is of the sudden traumatic event type, the M.E.H. court lumps the instant alleged series of sexually abusive acts against a very young girl with all other acts of childhood sexual abuse. The reality is that such abuse occurs in numerous ways to children of differing ages and life experiences. Child sexual abuse can range from the violent sexual abuse of a 17-year-old to the sexual molestation of an infant. Accordingly, it is incorrect to assume, as the M.E.H. court did, that there is no difference in the type of child sexual abuse perpetrated upon children or how these children perceive the sexual abuse perpetrated against them. Indeed, plaintiff alleges that at the time of the alleged molestation she did not understand that what was happening to her was abnormal. It strains credulity that, in this circumstance, she would be “put on notice that actionable conduct might be involved.” Golla v. General Motors Corp., 167 Ill. 2d 353, 363 (1995). Moreover, as noted above, the third amended complaint alleges that Kuhl had befriended plaintiff and her family and that he committed the acts of sexual abuse “through the use of emotional coercion and not by force or violence.” This type of emotionally coercive but not overtly violent sexual abuse perpetrated by an authority figure and family friend differs from the “sudden traumatic event” envisioned by the M.E.H. court. Here, plaintiff is alleging that no such “event” occurred. In my view, the M.E.H. court erred in characterizing all acts of child sexual abuse as sudden traumatic events. The allegations in the instant appeal portray a far different but no less abhorrent circumstance. At the very least, where the alleged victims are young children, the allegations of child sexual abuse should not automatically be viewed in the framework of a sudden traumatic event that puts the injured party on notice that actionable conduct might be involved. Further, I disagree with the majority’s view that plaintiffs complaint is essentially so vague and ambiguous that plaintiff has not put forward an explanation of why it was impossible for her to discover her injury sooner. It is readily apparent that plaintiff is alleging a repressed memory theory. Specifically, she alleges the following subject acts of sexual abuse initially occurred when she was four or five years old and ended when she was eight or nine years of age. Late in 1994, plaintiff’s sister, Teresa, told plaintiff that she (Teresa) had been molested by defendant Kuhl. Teresa suggested to plaintiff that she had also been molested by defendant. Up until that point in time, plaintiff “had no memory of the molestation at any time during her majority *** and is still, to this day, recalling additional incidents of molestation.” In light of these allegations, I do not share the majority’s confusion as to why plaintiff did not come forward earlier with her complaint. Her allegations point to a “repressed memory” basis for the timing of the complaint. Further, I do not agree with the majority’s view that in plaintiff’s amended complaint on remand she must plead the condition with greater specificity. Her third amended complaint sufficiently advises defendant of the alleged basis on which section 13 — 202.2 applies. In conclusion, I disagree with the majority’s failure to modify M.E.H.’s characterization of all acts of child sexual abuse as sudden traumatic events. I also disagree that a further amended complaint is necessary for plaintiff to elaborate why she did not discover her injury sooner.