CARLSON v. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF MASTER

CALIFORNIA
Leagle

CAROL ANN CARLSON, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF THE MASTER et al., Defendants and Respondents.
No. G043987, Consol. with G044298.
Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division Three.
Filed February 14, 2012.

The Arkin Law Firm and Sharon J. Arkin for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Greene, Fidler, Chaplan & Hicks, Greene, Fidler & Chaplan and Richard J. Greene for Defendant and Respondent The Presbyterian Church of the Master.

Bonne, Bridges, Mueller, O’Keefe & Nichols, David J. O’Keefe, William R. Johnson and Vangi M. Johnson for Defendant and Respondent Presbytery of Los Ranchos.

OPINION

FYBEL, J.

INTRODUCTION

Pastor Jack Loo, an employee of The Presbyterian Church of the Master (Church of the Master) provided counseling services to Carol Ann Carlson. After eight years of counseling, Loo and Carlson’s relationship became sexual, and continued as such for 11 more years. Carlson was 35 to 46 years old during this time period. Carlson contends she was the victim of sexual abuse. She sued Church of the Master and The Presbytery of Los Ranchos (Presbytery), among others, for breach of a confidential relationship and for the negligent supervision, retention, and hiring of Loo. Church of the Master and Presbytery filed separate motions for summary judgment, contending the statute of limitations on Carlson’s claims ran before she filed her lawsuit. The trial court granted the motions; Carlson appeals.

We conclude the trial court properly granted the motions. Church of the Master and Presbytery offered Carlson’s deposition testimony that between 1995 and 1999, she was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), caused by the sexual relationship with Loo. Carlson did not file her complaint until 2008. Thus, Carlson was aware of her injury and its cause at least nine, and as many as 13, years before filing her complaint. By statute, she was entitled to and did make substantive changes to her deposition testimony. Nevertheless, evidence before the trial court, in the form of Carlson’s deposition testimony that she did not change, established the statute of limitations began to run much more than two years before Carlson filed her complaint. We therefore affirm the judgments.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.