NCJ Number
144933
Journal
Yale Law Journal Volume: 100 Issue: 7 Dated: (May 1991) Pages: 2189-2208
Date Published
1991
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article examines the use of the delayed discovery rule in civil proceedings by incest victims against their perpetrators when the bringing of the suit comes after the exceeding of the statute of limitations from the time of the actual incest.
Abstract
The delayed discovery rule was initially developed in a number of jurisdictions on fairness grounds to permit plaintiffs to sue for latent harm that could not reasonably have been discovered within the normal statute of limitations under a variety of circumstances. In examining the application of this rule in incest cases, Part I of this article draws upon the psychological literature on incest to explore the devastating psychological aftermath of childhood incestuous abuse. Part II focuses on the policy considerations that underlie statutes of limitations and the discovery rule and details the split in court opinion over the application of the discovery rule to civil incest suits. In Part III, the rigid interpretation of the reasonableness standard used by the more restrictive courts in applying the discovery rule is contrasted with the broader and more sophisticated standard of reasonableness used by other courts. The author argues that a court's interpretation of the application of the delayed discovery rule should not focus only on the time when the victim had a conscious memory of the incest, but rather upon the time when the victim became fully aware of the extent of the harm caused by the incest. 130 footnotes