Maine High Court | SOURCE: WMTW
Referencing pricey lawsuits that have forced some dioceses into bankruptcy, a representative for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland told the justices of the highest court on Thursday that Maine’s removal of the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases is unconstitutional and creates new obligations.
A 70-year-old man stated on Wednesday that he is stepping up because “my voice was taken away from me for all those years” and that he wants to help others who are similar to himself. He recently secured a settlement with a Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts over sexual abuse he endured at the age of 8.
“Several details, painful details, brought that memory back,” Claude Leboeuf stated during a Fall River press conference. “I could feel muscle pain, sometimes emotional pain. I can visualize them. I can never know when those memories come flashing back to me. But that’s how it happens. It’s very real to me.”
Leboeuf, of Providence, Rhode Island, contacted Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who specializes in representing victims of sexual assault who are clergy, a few years ago. Leboeuf said that the Rev. James Porter, who pleaded guilty in 1993 to abusing 28 children while serving as a priest in the Fall River Diocese, had mistreated him in 1960 at a church in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
However, a lawyer whose legal practice represents over 100 litigants described the law as the “will of the people,” in contrast to the diocese’s insistence on ignoring previous behavior.
Attorney Michael Bigos told the court, “There’s never been a right to enable child sex abuse. The diocese wants you to create a vested right to get away with it.”
At a crowded hearing at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor, the Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments that were extremely technical and highlighted the importance of the court’s final ruling.
Due to the amount of litigation and settlements resulting from the clerical abuse crisis, the Roman Catholic dioceses in Baltimore, Buffalo, New York, and other locations have declared bankruptcy.
Numerous new cases in Maine have been filed since the state lifted the statute of limitations, but they are on hold while the validity of the bill is being challenged in court.
Though not retrospectively, Maine eliminated its statute of limitations in 2000 for filing lawsuits related to sexual abuse of minors; thus, survivors in situations from decades prior had no way to pursue legal action.
Changes made in 2021 made it possible for civil claims that had expired, allowing scores of victims of abuse to file a lawsuit. About 100 survivors are represented by Bigos’s law firm, Berman & Simmons; several of them have already filed lawsuits. According to him, 75 of the instances involve Roman Catholic organizations.
As previously stated, the Portland diocese claims that survivors had enough time to file a lawsuit and that it is illegal to allow new cases, which might result in demands for damages totaling “tens of millions of dollars.”
Recalling earlier case law, Gerald Petruccelli, an attorney representing the Diocese of Portland, stated on Thursday that “the Legislature has no constitutional authority to enact legislation if its implementation impairs vested rights or imposes liabilities that would result from conduct predating the legislation.”
Justice Andrew Mead of the Supreme Court once remarked that the legal exercise was “a little metaphysical,” which caused some onlookers to chuckle. He then compared it to a “dormant cause of action” that was waiting to be reawakened by a change in the law, giving the impression that something was happening in a mad scientist’s lab.
“It sounds like something from a horror movie, but it had been lying dormant for these years, and the Legislature, with the turn of a statute, can bring it back to life,” he stated.
The statute of limitations for child sexual abuse has previously been affirmed by a state judge; however, the judge has suspended cases in order to allow for an appeal of the ruling.
The diocese has maintained that the removal of the deadline results in the loss of rights that were previously established, or “vested rights.”
However, in February, Justice Thomas McKeon decided that the law can apply to both persons and institutions and that vested rights usually pertain to property rights rather than statutes of limitations. However, the court also stated that the case was “close” and that the diocese’s lawyers had brought up “serious” constitutional issues.
After the hearing on Thursday, the Diocese of Portland stated that while it opposes the law, it “in no way reflects a desire to minimize the devastating effects of past sexual abuse by church representatives.” It will be severely impacted if the law is upheld in terms of the diocese’s capacity to serve the Catholic community.
“The diocese is committed to thoroughly investigating any report of abuse brought forth and to providing extensive support services to those who come forward with any allegation of abuse,” it stated.
