CALIFORNIA
Digital Journal
April 22, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — Two recent California child sexual abuse cases ruled upon by the Supreme Court of California looked at violations of trust in two distinct institutional settings: sex abuse by clergy and sex abuse by teachers. One case was decided in favor of the student plaintiff, while the other decision set back an action brought by a group of former parishioners.
The cases looked at two issues common to civil actions against schools and churches: to what extent an institution can be held liable for the actions of employees, and the statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits brought by adults for harm they suffered as children. They also underscore one common aspect of these cases: people who suffered molestation or other abuse at the hands of adults sometimes have to exhaust their legal options in pursuit of justice. …
Statutes of Limitations for Sex Abuse Claims Against Clergy
Just three weeks later, the California Supreme Court again weighed in on an important child sexual abuse issue in Quarry v. Doe. In that case, a group of six brothers sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland, alleging negligence in allowing a priest to commit acts of sexual abuse against them when they were children.
The men alleged that they had all been sexually abused and molested by an associate pastor while they were altar boys at the St. Joachim parish in Hayward, California, during 1972 and 1973. In a deposition for another church sex abuse case, the priest had admitted to sexually abusing the brothers.
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