Hewczuk v. Sambor

Hewczuk v. Sambor was a 1992 civil action frm Pennsylvania in which Hewczuk sued her father for physical and sexual abuse she recalled in adulthood after having a miscarriage. “Hewczuk’s attorney Nancy Wasser said her client experienced vivid memories of the alleged torture after she miscarried two years ago….Records from Catholic charities and hospitals helped corroborate her client’s recollections" (Brennan 1992, See also Brennan 1993). In response to post-trial motions, the judge affirmed the verdict, summarizing the evidence and findings as follows: “Viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the verdict-winner, the trial evidence established that, while in defendant’s foster case for a brief period in early 1960, plaintiff was horribly mistreated (forced to eat her own vomit and drink her own urine; smeared with fecal matter and forced to eat it; bathed in extremely hot water; nearly drowned when her face was held under water in a toilet bowl; and, on at least one occasion, sexually assaulted); and that her memory of these atrocities was totally suppressed for many years. It is also clear that she regained her memory of these events, more or less fully, by June of 1991, and that she had begun to have ‘flashbacks’ and partial awareness of the earlier trauma in the summer of 1990" (Memorandum).