DC Sexual Abuse Case Reopened After Dismissal Was Misinterpreted

A dismissal without prejudice doesn’t bar future claims by res judicata, a D.C. Circuit court said.

Shanique Perez says that she was sexually abused by a KIPP DC charter school teacher in the District of Columbia for five years, ending in 2009. Her 2018 complaint was dismissed because the statute of limitations had run out, but the court didn’t explain why it dismissed the case without prejudice.

DC has since passed the Sexual Abuse Statute of Limitations Amendment Act, which granted a two-year window for victims of sexual abuse whose claims were previously time-barred to file suit. But when Perez ...