Slew of church abuse lawsuits hinges on state court decision
Associated PressHARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses have been hit with about 150 lawsuits from people who say they were sexually abused as children by priests and hope a state court decision last year has shown a way around time limits for legal claims. Casey Coyle, a lawyer for the Scranton Diocese, said the grand jury report’s Friday anniversary has fueled the new lawsuits that lean heavily on the Rice decision. “So it was only upon release of that information that the people I’m representing … became aware of the crisis and the fraud that had been committed.” The state Supreme Court in March said it would review the Superior Court’s decision that gave Rice, now 52, the ability to sue for abuse she said occurred for several years when she was a child, ending in 1981. Lawyers for the Scranton Diocese said in a brief filed in late May that, at that time, it was the defendant in five of 25 civil lawsuits “that all raise the same, or substantially the same, theories and claims” since the Superior Court decision was issued in the Rice case.
History of this topic
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