CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By Ashley Powers
August 14, 2013
A bill that would give some sex abuse victims more time to file lawsuits, which has drawn fierce opposition from the Catholic Church, failed to get enough support Wednesday to make it out of a key legislative committee.
The bill, which needed nine votes to leave the lower house’s appropriations committee and go to the Assembly floor, mustered only six. Four committee members opposed the bill and seven did not weigh in after an emotional hearing that included testimony from a lobbyist who is also a sex abuse survivor.
The panel, which mainly considers how much a proposal would cost the state, will take up SB 131 again next week. It has already passed the state Senate and the Assembly judiciary committee.
The bill would, in part, lift the statute of limitations for one year to allow certain victims to sue private or nonprofit employers who may have failed to protect them from known molesters. Supporters say sex abuse victims need extra time to file lawsuits because it often takes decades for them to admit that they were molested.
A key question for the committee is whether new lawsuits would strain an already overburdened court system. At the height of the clergy abuse scandal in 2002, the legislature signed off on a similar one-year window. Hundreds of people filed claims, many of them against the Catholic Church.
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