Filed: Jun. 25, 1999
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUN 25 1999 TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk JOHN DEAN AYON, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. No. 98-1305 (D. Ct. No. 97-S-1936) REVEREND MARSHALL GOURLEY; (D. Colo.) ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF DENVER; MOST REVEREND CHARLES J. CHAPUT, His Predecessors and Successors, as Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, Defendants - Appellees. - THE AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS; THE ASSOC
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUN 25 1999 TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk JOHN DEAN AYON, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. No. 98-1305 (D. Ct. No. 97-S-1936) REVEREND MARSHALL GOURLEY; (D. Colo.) ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF DENVER; MOST REVEREND CHARLES J. CHAPUT, His Predecessors and Successors, as Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, Defendants - Appellees. - THE AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS; THE ASSOCI..
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F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
JUN 25 1999
TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
JOHN DEAN AYON,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v. No. 98-1305
(D. Ct. No. 97-S-1936)
REVEREND MARSHALL GOURLEY; (D. Colo.)
ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF
DENVER; MOST REVEREND CHARLES
J. CHAPUT, His Predecessors and
Successors, as Archbishop of the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Denver,
Defendants - Appellees.
------------------------------
THE AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES
OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS; THE
ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN
SCHOOLS INTERNATIONAL; BAPTIST
JOINT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC
AFFAIRS; THE BISHOP AND DIOCESE
OF COLORADO (PROTESTANT
EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA); CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY
SAINTS; COLORADO BAPTIST
GENERAL CONVENTION; THE
COLORADO CATHOLIC CONFERENCE;
COLORADO DISTRICT CHURCH OF
THE NAZARENE; COLORADO MUSLIM
SOCIETY; COLORADO SPRINGS
ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS;
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
IN AMERICA; FIRST CHURCH OF
CHRIST, SCIENTIST; GENERAL
COUNCIL ON FINANCE AND
ADMINISTRATION OF THE UNITED
METHODIST CHURCH;
INTERNATIONAL CHURCH OF THE
FOURSQUARE GOSPEL; ISLAMIC
SOCIETY OF COLORADO SPRINGS;
MID-AMERICA UNION CONFERENCE
OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS; NEW
LIFE CHURCH; PUEBLO ASSOCIATION
OF EVANGELICALS; ROCKY
MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE OF
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS; ROCKY
MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE OF THE
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH;
ROCKY MOUNTAIN OF THE
LUTHERAN CHURCH-MISSOURI
SYNOD; ROCKY MOUNTAIN
PRESBYTERIAN (PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH IN AMERICA); ROCKY
MOUNTAIN SYNOD, EVANGELICAL
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA;
ROCKY MOUNTAIN YEARLY
MEETING OF THE FRIENDS CHURCH;
SOKA GAKKAI
INTERNATIONAL-U.S.A. ROCKY
MOUNTAIN REGION; SOLID ROCK
CHRISTIAN CHURCH; THE UNITED
STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE;
WISCONSIN EVANGELICAL
LUTHERAN SYNOD,
Amici Curiae.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of
law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. This court generally disfavors the
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Before ANDERSON , TACHA , and KELLY , Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff John Dean Ayon brought this diversity action against Father
Marshall Gourley, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, and the
Archbishop of Denver, alleging various tort theories stemming from Gourley’s
purported sexual abuse of Ayon. The district court granted defendants’ motion to
dismiss and for summary judgment. Plaintiff timely appealed this decision. We
have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.
Background
On September 8, 1997, Ayon commenced this suit against the Archbishop,
the Archdiocese, and one of its priests, Father Gourley, in the United States
District Court for the District of Colorado. Ayon’s initial complaint alleged that
Gourley engaged in improper sexual contact with him when he was a minor
parishioner at the church to which Gourley was assigned in Denver. Ayon
claimed the sexual molestation and abuse occurred on numerous occasions from
June 1981 through June 1984. These facts supported Ayon’s claim of outrageous
conduct against Gourley. Ayon also asserted claims of negligent hiring and
supervision, outrageous conduct, breach of fiduciary duty, concert of action and
citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order and judgment may be cited under
the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
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conspiracy against the Archbishop and Archdiocese (hereinafter collectively
referred to as “Archdiocese”). The Archdiocese filed a motion to dismiss or for
summary judgment on October 22, 1997, arguing that there were insufficient facts
to support the outrageous conduct and joint liability claims and that the statute of
limitations and the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of First Amendment
barred all claims against it. Gourley filed a summary judgment motion on
October 24, 1997, making a statute of limitations argument.
On December 15, 1997, Ayon filed his response to defendants’ motions
and requested leave to amend his complaint to add additional facts. Those
additional facts included an allegation that Gourley sexually assaulted him in
1993. At a May 1, 1998 hearing, the court expressed concern about plaintiff’s
proposed first amended complaint changing and adding facts to respond to
defendants’ statute of limitations arguments. The court granted plaintiffs’ motion
to withdraw the proposed first amended complaint and to submit a new amended
complaint. However, the court limited the scope of the amendment by prohibiting
changes to the original complaint’s factual allegations. The district court stated:
I will expressly exclude . . . , by striking, any amendments which . . .
seek to modify the factual allegations of the complaint. I do not
think that is a proper amendment. . . .
For instance, the amended complaint presently filed attempts to
modify certain dates with regard to actions which were originally
alleged in the complaint for the apparent purpose of responding to
the statute of limitations problem. I will not allow such amendments.
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If you have alleged a certain occurrence on a certain date, I do not
think it’s proper now in response to a summary judgment motion
that’s been filed by the defendants to amend those dates to cure the
defects alleged in the summary judgment.
Appellant’s App., Vol. III, at 774-75. Plaintiff objected to this limitation.
Plaintiff subsequently filed a renewed motion for leave to amend, along
with a new amended complaint. The court granted in part and denied in part the
renewed motion to amend. The court allowed amendments to the extent that they
clarified or added claims. The amended complaint therefore alleged claims of
outrageous conduct and breach of fiduciary duty against Gourley and claims of
negligent hiring and supervision, outrageous conduct, and vicarious liability
against the Archdiocese. The court refused, however, to allow any changes to
factual allegations in the original complaint. To that end, it struck several factual
assertions from the amended complaint, including an allegation of a 1993
attempted assault by Gourley, an allegation that abuse continued from the 1980s
through 1993, and an allegation that plaintiff did not realize that Gourley’s
alleged actions had caused him harm until he sought psychological counseling in
July 1997. The court also noted that the amended complaint had omitted facts
from the original complaint describing how plaintiff had suffered emotional
distress from the alleged abuse constantly from the 1980s until the present. This
omission and the new facts, the court concluded, were designed to avoid the
statute of limitations bar. Therefore, the court ruled that it would treat facts
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alleged in the original complaint as “judicial admissions.” Plaintiff did not object
to such treatment.
On July 15, 1998, the district court granted the Archdiocese’s motion to
dismiss and defendants’ motions for summary judgment. The court held that the
Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment barred Ayon’s
negligence and outrageous conduct claims against the Archdiocese because any
inquiry into church hiring or employment of priests would interfere with the
Archdiocese’s right to free exercise of religion and excessively entangle the
courts in church operations. The court also dismissed the vicarious liability
claims because plaintiff failed to properly plead the Archdiocese’s ratification of
Gourley’s conduct. On summary judgment, the court concluded that plaintiff’s
causes of action for the alleged 1981-84 abuse accrued prior to 1991. Under
Colorado law, a cause of action accrues when the injury and its cause are known
or should have been known to the plaintiff. See Mastro v. Brodie , 682 P.2d 1162,
1168 (Colo. 1984). Because this suit was not filed until 1997, the court held the
statute of limitations had run with respect to all claims against defendants and
granted their summary judgment motions.
Plaintiff argues four issues on appeal: (1) the First Amendment does not bar
suit against the Archdiocese for its allegedly tortious actions; (2) he properly pled
the vicarious liability claims; (3) the district court abused its discretion in
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allowing only partial amendment of the complaint and treating facts from the
original complaint as “judicial admissions;” and (4) even under the facts of the
original complaint, the cause of action did not accrue until 1997, thus bringing the
action within the applicable statutes of limitations. We find no error in the
district court’s treatment of the complaint or its conclusion that all of plaintiff’s
causes of action are barred by the applicable statutes of limitations. Therefore,
we need not address the First Amendment and vicarious liability questions.
Discussion
I.
We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo,
applying the same legal standard used by the district court. See Byers v. City of
Albuquerque 150 F.3d 1271, 1274 (10th Cir. 1998). Summary judgment is
appropriate “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and
admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no
genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a
judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). When applying this
standard, we view the evidence and draw reasonable inferences therefrom in the
light most favorable to the nonmoving party. See
Byers, 150 F.3d at 1274.
As the district court noted, the statute of limitations question turns on when
plaintiff’s causes of action accrued. In order to fully evaluate the statute of
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limitations issue, we must first resolve what facts we may consider. Accordingly,
we turn to the district court’s treatment of plaintiff’s amended complaint.
“The decision to grant leave to amend a complaint, after the permissive
period, is within the trial court’s discretion, Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a), and will not be
disturbed absent an abuse of that discretion.” Woolsey v. Marion Labs, Inc. , 934
F.2d 1452, 1462 (10th Cir. 1991). The district court should deny leave to amend
only when it finds “undue delay, undue prejudice to the opposing party, bad faith
or dilatory motive, failure to cure deficiencies by amendments previously allowed,
or futility of amendment.” Frank v. U.S. West, Inc. ,
3 F.3d 1357, 1365 (10th Cir.
1993). However, untimeliness alone may be sufficient reason to deny leave to
amend, “‘especially when the party filing the motion has no adequate explanation
for the delay.’” Pallottino v. City of Rio Rancho ,
31 F.3d 1023, 1027 (10th Cir.
1994) (quoting Frank , 3 F.3d at 1365-66). Failure to include known facts in the
original complaint may also constitute grounds for denial. See
id. (citing State
Distribs., Inc. v. Glenmore Distilleries Co. ,
738 F.2d 405, 416 (10th Cir. 1984)).
The district court in this case refused to allow complete amendment of the
complaint for at least two reasons. First, it found the amendment would further
delay the proceedings. Second, and more importantly, the court expressed
concern about plaintiff’s bad faith and dilatory motive. It found “by virtue of the
nature of the amendments which are proffered here in this amended complaint,
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that it is a rather lightly veiled attempt to avoid the allegations . . . and admissions
which were made in previous complaints, which are unfavorable to the plaintiff
under the legal theories now expounded.” Appellant’s App., Vol. III, at 808. The
court placed some weight on plaintiff’s failure to explain the initial exclusion of
the disputed facts, especially because plaintiff did not claim the facts derived
from newly discovered evidence. We find the district court’s decision does not
amount to an abuse of discretion. “‘A busy district court need not allow itself to
be imposed upon by the presentation of theories seriatim.’” Pallottino , 31 F.3d at
1027 (quoting Freeman v. Continental Gin Co. , 381 F.2d 459, 469-70 (5th Cir.
1967)). Plaintiff’s inability to explain why he waited three months before seeking
to add facts known to him at the time he filed his initial complaint, combined with
the evidence of bad faith, support the district court’s ruling on the amendment of
the claim. See Panis v. Mission Hills Bank, N.A. ,
60 F.3d 1486, 1495 (10th Cir.
1995); Pallottino , 31 F.3d at 1027; Frank , 3 F.3d at 1366.
When the district court struck plaintiff’s new facts from the amended
complaint, it initially ordered the factual allegations from the original complaint
added to the amended complaint. Soon thereafter, the district court realized that
“we are totally changing the amended complaint, and about the only way we could
approach it would be to reamend – to come up with a new complaint.”
Appellant’s App., Vol. III at 815. Rather than order another amended complaint,
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the district court suggested treating facts from the original complaint as “judicial
admissions” by the plaintiff. Plaintiff argues that the amended complaint
superseded the original, making the court’s ruling on “judicial admissions”
erroneous. However, plaintiff failed to make this argument to the district court or
to object to the district court’s “judicial admissions” decision. 1
This court has
repeatedly stated that:
Generally, we will not consider an issue that was not raised and
resolved in the trial court. We will consider matters not raised or
argued in the trial court only in the most unusual circumstances,
which may include issues regarding jurisdiction and sovereign
immunity, . . . instances where public interest is implicated, . . . or
where manifest injustice would result.
Smith v. Rogers Galvanizing Co. , 128 F.3d 1380, 1385-86 (10th Cir. 1997)
(internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Finding no extraordinary
circumstances in this case, we hold plaintiff has waived this argument on appeal.
Therefore, like the district court, we shall consider the facts as presented in
plaintiff’s original complaint.
II.
In a diversity case, we apply the substantive law, including the statutes of
1
Plaintiff did object when the district court announced at the May 1, 1998 status
hearing that it would impose limitations on the plaintiff’s ability to change facts in the
amended complaint. Therefore, he may properly challenge the district court’s amendment
decision. However, at the June 19, 1998 motions hearing, plaintiff made no objection to
the court’s decision to treat the facts in the original complaint as judicial admissions.
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limitations, applicable under the law of the forum state. See, e.g. , Miller v.
Armstrong World Indus., Inc. , 949 F.2d 1088, 1089 n.3 (10th Cir. 1991). The
parties agree Colorado law governs this suit. While there is some disagreement as
to which statutes of limitations apply to the different parties, the dispositive issue
is when plaintiff’s causes of action accrued. 2
Plaintiff claims they accrued in
1997 when he received counseling. Defendants argue they accrued in the 1980s
when the alleged sexual contact occurred.
We conclude that, under Colorado law, plaintiff’s causes of action accrued
in 1984, at the latest. Colorado law provides that personal injury causes of action
accrue “when the claimant has knowledge of facts which would put a reasonable
person on notice of the nature and extent of an injury and that the injury was
caused by the wrongful conduct of another.” Mastro v. Brodie , 682 F.2d 1162,
1169 (Colo. 1984); cf. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-80-108(1) (adopting, after 1986, the
same rule announced in Mastro ). Plaintiff’s claimed injury is emotional distress.
2
Plaintiff claims the two-year statute of limitations set out in Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-
80-102 applies to the Archdiocese defendants and the special six-year statute of
limitations for sexual assaults, see id. § 13-80-103.7, applies to Gourley. This is true if
plaintiff’s causes of action accrued in 1997. However, if the causes of action accrued in
the early 1980s, the applicable statutes of limitation at that time were six years for
negligence and outrageous conduct claims pursuant to former Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-80-
110, see Cassidy v. Smith,
817 P.2d 555, 557 (Colo. Ct. App. 1991), and five years for
breach of fiduciary duty claims pursuant to former Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-80-114, see Van
Schaack v. Van Schaack Holdings, Ltd.,
856 P.2d 15, 25 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992), aff’d,
867 P.2d 892 (Colo. 1994). Colorado significantly revised its statutes of limitations in
1986.
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Plaintiff contends that he did not connect the injury to its cause until his therapy
in 1997. However, the facts in Ayon’s initial complaint and affidavits, combined
with the applicable Colorado law, dictate a contrary conclusion.
In Cassidy v. Smith , 817 P.2d 555, 557-58 (Colo. Ct. App. 1991), two
minor girls, ages fifteen and seventeen, were sexually abused by a close family
friend. The girls knew the activity was “improper” and admitted feeling pain,
despair, alienation, shame, confusion, and other emotional distress at the time.
See
id. at 557. The plaintiffs asserted, however, that they were unaware of the
damage resulting from the abuse until years later, after their mother confronted
them about the sexual abuse and advised them to seek psychological counseling.
Plaintiffs submitted personal affidavits as well as those from treating therapists
regarding the delayed discovery of the cause of their psychological injuries. See
id. Despite these affidavits, the court concluded that after the girls reached
majority, “plaintiffs were aware of the wrongful nature of defendant’s acts and . .
. they had sufficient knowledge concerning the existence of resulting
psychological harm that the statute of limitations began to run when they achieved
their majority.”
Id. at 558. In finding plaintiffs aware of both injury and cause,
the court implicitly rejected the theory now presented to this court by Ayon. See
id. at 558 (Dubofsky, J., dissenting) (“The fact that plaintiffs experienced some
initial psychological problems from having sexual relationships with defendant
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does not, as a matter of law, give them notice that these relationships would result
in subsequent serious psychological problems.”).
Under Cassidy , Ayon knew or should have known the alleged sexual abuse
was wrong and “had sufficient knowledge concerning the existence of resulting
psychological harm,” id. at 558, at least in 1984, if not earlier. Ayon was sixteen
when the alleged abuse began in 1981 and almost twenty at the time of the last
incident in June 1984. In his affidavit, he admits being “embarrassed, humiliated,
ashamed and fearful about what happened” and claims to have blamed himself.
Appellant’s App., Vol. I, at 313. He also claims Gourley threatened to kill him or
his mother if he ever told anyone about the abuse. Additionally, the original
complaint alleges: “From the dates of the abuse to the present, and largely
because of his abuse, the Plaintiff has been continually subject to coercion,
duress, religious duress, mental infirmity, disability and unsound mind as to the
facts, conditions and circumstances surrounding his sexual abuse.”
Id. at 4. The
alleged threat by Gourley, plaintiff’s recognition that he was embarrassed and
fearful, and his acknowledgment that he blamed himself show Ayon knew the
wrongfulness of the alleged abuse. Moreover, to the extent Ayon claims
repression of the wrongfulness of the alleged encounters with Gourley, we
conclude, on these facts, that he should have known the wrongfulness of the acts.
A reasonable plaintiff of nineteen who felt fear and embarrassment and who
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allegedly received death threats stemming from the actions in question should
have reasonably known of the wrongfulness of the actions. As for the injury,
plaintiff admits that he suffered emotional distress at the time of the alleged
incidents of abuse. See id. Thus, as in Cassidy , plaintiff knew or should have
known the wrongful nature of the act, the resulting injury, and the causal
connection between the two. See Cassidy , 817 P.2d at 557-58. We therefore find
that plaintiff’s causes of action accrued in 1984 and the applicable statute of
limitations periods expired, at the latest, in 1990. Plaintiff’s causes of actions
against the defendants are barred.
In his reply brief, plaintiff for the first time makes an argument that the
statute of limitations for the negligent hiring/supervision claim against the
Archdiocese did not begin to run until plaintiff knew or should have known that
others had also been abused. We generally will not consider issues raised for the
first time in the reply brief. See Codner v. United States , 17 F.3d 1331, 1332 n.2
(10th Cir. 1994); Lyons v. Jefferson Bank & Trust ,
994 F.2d 716, 724 (10th Cir.
1993). We decline to do so here.
Finally, we refuse plaintiff’s entreaty to reconsider or disregard Cassidy in
light of advances in understanding of abuse victims over the past decade. In this
case, we are bound by Colorado law, and plaintiff provides no authority that
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would call Cassidy into question. 3
Plaintiff’s supplemental authority, Sailsbery v.
Parks , 1999 WL 107277 (Colo. Ct. App. Mar. 4, 1999), does little to affect our
conclusion. In Sailsbery , plaintiff, who alleged sexual abuse by the defendant
from age eleven to eighteen, claimed repressed memory of the sexual abuse itself.
See
id. at *1, *4. The court distinguished the case from Cassidy because
Sailsbery claimed not to remember the incident, any injury, or the cause of the
injury until she recovered that memory in therapy. See
id. at *3. We note that
Ayon makes no claim of repressed memory of the events forming the basis of his
complaint.
As a court sitting in diversity, we must apply the law as it exists in
Colorado. Colorado law demands summary judgment in favor of defendants.
3
Colorado amended its statute of limitations law in 1993 to provide a tolling of the
statute of limitations for persons under disabilities who suffer sexual assault, including
those in a special relationship of trust who are “psychologically or emotionally unable to
acknowledge the assault or offense and the harm resulting therefrom.” Colo. Rev. Stat. §
13-80-103.7(3.5)(a). The statutes of limitations ran on plaintiff’s claims prior to the new
statute taking effect, and we express no opinion on whether this statute would have
otherwise applied to plaintiff.
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Therefore, the district court’s order granting summary judgment is AFFIRMED.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT,
Deanell Reece Tacha
Circuit Judge
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