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	Supreme Court Reverses Dismissal in John Doe V. Diocese of Gallup Judicial Branch of the Navajo Naton September 12, 2011 http://www.navajocourts.org/PRArchive.htm [full story] The Navajo Nation Supreme Court issued its opinion in Joe Doe BF v. Diocese of Gallup, et al., No. SC-CV-06-10 on September 9, 2011, in a case in which a Navajo member had filed a personal injury action against a Catholic priest and diocese alleging that the priest had sexually abused him twenty years ago when he was a teenager. The case was filed long after the two-year time limit for filing personal injury actions. However, 7 N.N.C. 602(A)(4) permits the court to accept late filings in such actions if the plaintiff can show he was not able to discover sooner the nature and cause of the injury, or the identity of the person who committed the injury. The plaintiff had stated that he was unable to know the nature of the injury or make the connection between the abuse and the injury for many years. The district court had dismissed the case because it found that the statutory conditions that would allow the court to accept a late filing were not met. The Navajo member had appealed the dismissal.
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