D.D. v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton 8/12/09 CA3

State: California

Court: 1st District Court of Appeal 1st District Court of Appeal

Docket No: C057260

Case Date: 11/12/2009

Preview:Filed 8/12/09

D.D. v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton CA3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (San Joaquin) ---D.D., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF STOCKTON et al., Defendants and Respondents. C057260 (Super. Ct. No. CV031440)

This case requires us to explore the many revisions and amendments to Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1,1 a special statute of limitations governing causes of action alleging childhood sexual molestation. Plaintiff, who has been designated the fictitious name D.D., appeals from a judgment following the sustaining of a demurrer, without leave to amend, to his complaint for damages against defendants The Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton and the Pastor of St. Anne Church (Church defendants).

1

Undesignated statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure. 1

Plaintiff alleges that in the 1970s while he was a pupil at a Catholic school, Doe 4, a priest, teacher and employee of the Church defendants, subjected him to horrific and continuous acts of sexual abuse. Defendants allegedly knew of the abuse

and concealed, condoned, and otherwise failed to protect plaintiff from Doe 4, despite actual or constructive notice that he had also abused other minors and was a chronic child molester. Plaintiff claims he repressed all memory of the

abuse, but recovered his memory and linked it to his psychological problems in the summer of 2005. He filed this

action in late 2006, 30 years after the childhood sexual abuse had ended. Section 340.1, revised in 2002 when the Legislature also opened up a one-year "revival window" for bringing childhood sexual abuse claims, sets an outer date for commencement of an action to recover damages as the result of childhood sexual abuse of "three years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse . . . ." (

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