How They Voted

PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Bill White

The Senate is expected to vote later today on House Bill 1947, stripped of a key provision Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill no longer contains any kind of retroactive access to civil courts for child sex abuse victims blocked by the current statute of limitations, removed by senators who claimed it would be unconstitutional despite conflicting testimony from experts. Many of us saw this as a capitulation to powerful lobbyists from the Catholic Church and the insurance industry, which is why I wanted to use today’s post to report which senators went along with this.

In its present form, the bill removes statutes of limitations for criminal prosecution in child sex abuse cases and extends the statute from 30 to 50 for civil suits. It strengthens the provision allowing suits against public entities such as public school by requiring plaintiffs to prove negligence, as opposed to gross negligence. And it removes the statute of limitations for child sex abuse suits against individuals.

As a practical matter, that last change means that 20-plus years from now, when the first of the victims now under 30 reaches 51 and becomes blocked by the new age limit, they still will have access to court action — as long as they sue individuals, not the institutions that may have protected the offenders.

Clearly, the language is designed to defend the Catholic Church and its insurers. It couldn’t be more revealing about the committee’s priorities.

This willingness to eliminate statutes in all cases where the church has no financial exposure — criminal or suits against individuals — puts the lie to the claims that this reluctance to change statutes of limitations is about concern that old cases are too difficult to prove and unfair to defendants. Legislators and lobbyists seem to be fine with killing the statutes, as long as it doesn’t cost the church or the insurance industry money.

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