CA Court Mulls Window For Old Clergy Abuse Claims

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s highest court heard a precedent-setting case Thursday that could expose Roman Catholic dioceses in the state to another round of clergy abuse lawsuits.

The case before the California Supreme Court, which involves six brothers in their 40s and 50s, could allow adults who only recently connected their psychological problems to what happened to them as children to seek damages.

The brothers allege they were molested by an Oakland priest during the 1970s but didn’t link it to their ongoing distress until 2006. The priest, Donald Broderson, was forced to retire amid abuse allegations in 1993 and died in 2010.

Although legal time limits generally prevent plaintiffs from bringing civil complaints based on long-ago events, the California Legislature has expanded the statute of limitations for child abuse lawsuits several times during the last 25 years to make it easier for victims of childhood abuse to pursue their claims.

Most recently, it opened a one-year window in 2003 for people who otherwise would have been prevented by the passage of time to sue churches, schools and other employers that knowingly shielded accused molesters decades earlier.

The Oakland Diocese maintains the men are precluded from suing now because they did not do so during the one-year window and because of a since-abolished 1998 provision that allowed plaintiffs in child abuse cases to go after a perpetrator’s employer only if they were under the age of 26. All the brothers had passed 26 by then.

The brothers’ lawyers contend neither time limit applies to their clients because of a series of amendments adopted during the 1990s that gave victims three years from when they realized their difficulties in adult life resulted from child abuse to go to court. A midlevel appeals court agreed in 2009, reversing a trial judge who had thrown out the case on statute of limitations grounds.

Broderson admitted in a sworn deposition he gave in 2005 that he had had sexual relationships with four sets of underage brothers during the 1970s, including at least two of the brothers in the case now before the Supreme Court. He also admitted fondling other children, including one little girl.

The admissions came in since-settled cases brought by other grown men.

After receiving complaints from parents, Broderson’s superiors transferred him between parishes and ordered him to undergo counseling. The brothers in the Oakland case said his testimony triggered the realization that abuse by the priest caused their difficulties as adults.

At least eight other clergy abuse lawsuits involving similar claims of belated discovery of psychological injuries are on hold throughout the state pending the Supreme Court’s decision in the Oakland case.

Catholic dioceses and religious orders in California already have paid more than $1.1 billion since 2006 to settle child abuse lawsuits filed since the church clergy scandal erupted a decade ago.

The archbishop of Los Angeles, the bishop of Sacramento, the Boy Scouts of America, the Order of Carmelites and a private school association all filed friend-of-the-court briefs siding with the Oakland diocese in the case heard Thursday.

The Supreme Court has 90 days in which to issue its ruling.