San Francisco ? An elderly man accused of molesting two daughters nearly 50 years ago, creating a home life so dysfunctional that his two sons became molesters themselves, is at the center of a Supreme Court challenge that could affect cases nationwide.

One of Marion Stogner’s daughters, now 42, says her father’s assaults happened so routinely she had no idea it was wrong until years later.

“I was like, huh, this doesn’t happen in other families,” she said. “We were brought up as if it was normal, like brushing your teeth, going to church and being molested.”

Stogner has long denied abusing his children. And his attorney says the accusations by his daughters are so old that she can’t mount a defense in a case that landed in court just five years ago.

Stogner, a retired paper-plant worker, is accused of molesting his daughters between 1955 and 1964, allegations that came to light many years later when police investigating his sons persuaded the women to talk. In most states, statutes of limitations would keep Stogner, now 72, out of criminal court.

But California lawmakers in 1994 began allowing child molestation prosecutions years after legal deadlines to file charges had passed. Hundreds of people have been convicted under the law the justices will review on Monday, and a ruling against Stogner could pave the way for other states to follow suit.

Statutes of limitations are a bedrock principle of American law. Usually between three and 10 years, they protect the accused from the consequences of charges grown stale with age, conceived from unreliable memories or based on lost or dead witnesses.