A federal judge ruled that Tanya Kach, the girl who went missing from McKeesport in 1996, failed to meet the statute of limitations in filing a civil lawsuit against the school district, city and security company that employed her captor.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster entered judgment in favor of the defendants late Friday.

Already, Ms. Kach's attorney, Lawrence H. Fisher, filed a notice of appeal on the issue this morning.

Judge Lancaster heard argument from St. Moritz Security Services, the McKeesport Area School District and city of McKeesport on Tuesday. The defendants argued that Ms. Kach filed the lawsuit against their clients too late.

Ms. Kach, who went missing in February 1996 and resurfaced in March 2006, claims in the lawsuit that the security company did not properly train Mr. Hose. He worked security at Cornell Middle School, where the girl was a student. She also alleges that school officials knew of the relationship she'd formed with Mr. Hose, who was 37 at the time, but that they failed to try to stop it.

Ms. Kach claims that the city police failed to properly investigate her disappearance.

But Judge Lancaster said all of those things should have been evident to Ms. Kach before she went missing.

"Each omission and commission which plaintiff contends violated her constitutional rights was known to her in 1996. She knew the school did not prevent her relationship with defendant Hose; she knew the police did not find her and return her to her family; and she also knew defendant Hose was sexually abusing her while employed by St. Moritz," the judge wrote in a 25-page opinion. "While plaintiff may not have understood the unconstitutional nature of the moving defendants' actions, and/or inaction, she was undeniably aware that they had taken place."

Mr. Hose pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.

Though defense attorneys claimed that Ms. Kach failed to file her claim quickly enough, Mr. Fisher argued that something known as the tolling doctrine should apply, which holds that a claim cannot be barred based on time limitations if the plaintiff did not discover the injuries until after it had run out.