Deborah A. Ellis, Sally F. Fund, et al. John W. Compton, now fifty-three, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for repeated acts of incestuous sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated upon them by Compton during their childhood and youth in Washington, D. Compton's wrongful acts, the statute of limitations was tolled until their memories were reawakened in as a result of therapeutic intervention.
The district court granted Dr. Compton's motion to dismiss the complaint as time-barred. Farris v. Compton, F. It is not easy to defend against allegations of events said to have taken place a great many years ago. Nevertheless, accepting the allegations of the complaint as true for the purpose of the certified question, we hold that the complaint is not time-barred. If, as a result of the defendant's wrongful conduct, either plaintiff's recollection of the relevant events has been repressed, and if she has thus been effectively precluded during the period of repression from seeking legal redress, then that plaintiff's right of action did not accrue until the date that she recovered her memory of the wrongful conduct.
The plaintiffs in this case have alleged a long and sordid history of incestuous sexual abuse. Both women claim to have been raped and sodomized by their older brother, who is alleged to have been in a dominant position over them. The complaint alleges that he threatened to kill each of them if she reported his conduct. It is further alleged that Compton and his friends gang-raped the female plaintiffs during their pre-adolescent and teen years, and that he charged his friends money for allowing the friends to participate in the gang-rapes.
Compton's molestation of Ms. Fellez is alleged to have begun when she was twelve years old and he was sixteen, and it is said to have continued through her teens. The abuse of Ms. Farris, the younger of the two sisters, allegedly began when she was approximately four years old Compton was then twelve. The complaint alleges that Compton continued to molest Ms. Farris until she was about eight, that he then apparently stopped, and that he subsequently resumed the wrongful activity during her teens.
Although the complaint does not disclose precisely when the abuse is claimed to have ended, there appears to be no allegation that any of it occurred after Ms.
