Expert witness at Mount Cashel civil trial up in the air

By Barb Sweet
Telegram
April 19, 2016

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2016-04-19/article-4502806/Expert-witness-at-Mount-Cashel-civil-trial-up-in-the-air/1

Newfoundland Supreme Court Justice Alphonsus Faour will make a decision this afternoon on whether Father Thomas Doyle is acceptable as an expert in canon law.

Lawyers argued back and forth late Monday and this morning in a voir dire about whether Virginia, U.S., canon lawyer Doyle should be qualified to testify as an expert in the civil trial.

The trial is to determine whether or not the RC Episcopal Corp. should be held liable for physical and sexual abuse of boys by certain members of the lay order Christian Brothers at the former Mount Cashel orphanage during the era, late 1940s to early 1950s.

The church contends it did not run the orphanage.

Budden and Associates, lawyers for claimants in the case, are seeking to have Doyle testify.