Marlene Lemmerman v. Benjamin Fealk Or

This case questions whether plaintiff is barred by expiration of the applicable statutory period of limitations from bringing an action for sexual abuse occurring during her minority. Plaintiff has appealed as of right from an order of the Oakland Circuit Court granting summary Disposition to defendants under MCR 2.116(C)(7). She argues that the trial court erred in ruling that the statute of limitations barred her claim. She argues that the delayed discovery rule should apply to her, an adult who was sexually abused as a child. She asserts, also, that the statutory period of limitations was tolled during the long period during which she repressed the abuse. We reverse. Plaintiff, a fifty-four-year-old female, filed suit against her mother, her father's estate and her aunt for assault and battery, negligence and tortious infliction of emotional distress. She alleged that her father, Benjamin Fealk, and her aunt, Rachael Levy, physically and sexually abused her from the time she was three until she reached puberty. She claimed that her mother, Bella Fealk, physically abused her, and knew or should have known of the other alleged abuse. Plaintiff declares that she repressed memories of the abuse until 1989.