A woman who claims she developed a thyroid condition as a result of being raped by "Godfather of Soul" James Brown should have sued him within two years of the alleged assault, an Illinois judge has ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier narrowly applied the statute of limitations, finding it barred Jacque Hollander's claims against Brown -– even though she said she did not discover until January 2003 that the cause of her Graves' disease was the rape allegedly committed by Brown 15 years earlier.

The delay in recognizing "certain effects" of the alleged rape "does not provide us with a sound basis for application of the discovery rule" that tolls the statute, Schenkier said in his decision.

Hollander sued the singer in January 2005 for $106 million in damages, claiming he raped her at gunpoint in South Carolina when she was working for him as a publicist. She was diagnosed with Graves' disease in 2000.

Her attorney argued in a brief that the statute should toll because her injuries were not "proximate in time to their cause," preventing her from knowing the facts required to prove damages until 2003.

But granting Brown's motion to dismiss, Schenkier held that

[P]laintiff simply did not know the full extent of her injuries until after the statute expired. That is precisely the type of case to which the discovery rule does not apply.

The National Graves' Disease Foundation says stress can contribute to the onset of the illness, but, in many cases, the exact cause is unknown.

Hollander also claimed she did not file within the statute because Brown threatened to "have [her] killed if she told anyone what happened." To toll the statute "on such a basis ... [would] open the classic 'Pandora's Box' of stale claims," Schenkier said.

By Matthew Heller
7/1/05