‘molested Brothers Waited Too Long’

By Lisa Leff
Pretoria News
March 30, 2012

http://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news

California's highest court sided with Oakland's Roman Catholic bishop and refused on Thursday to reinstate a lawsuit brought by six brothers who allege they were molested by a priest during the 1970s.

The ruling could doom at least eight other pending cases involving decades-old clergy abuse claims.

The California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the brothers had waited too long to bring their abuse claims involving the priest, Donald Broderson, who was forced to retire amid similar allegations in 1993 and died in 2010.

The state Legislature opened a one-year window for old clergy abuse complaints in 2003, and the men lost their chance to sue the diocese that hired Broderson as an associate pastor in Hayward when that timeframe ended, the court said.