GUAM
KUAM
Updated: Apr 24, 2017
By Krystal Paco
Nearly half of the over 40 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed in the District Court of Guam could be booted back to the local courts. And the federal court is raising concerns over jurisdiction.
Plaintiff Leo Tudela lives in Hawaii. Former priest and named defendant Father Louis Brouillard lives in Minnesota. This could be an issue for the District Court of Guam who may not have jurisdiction over many of the cases of clergy sex abuse. In court on Monday, Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan expressed his concern over diversity jurisdiction – whether the court can entertain controversies between citizens of different states.
“The judge wants us to file our position as to why if there is jurisdiction on each of the cases. All right. So of course, we’ve got three weeks to do that. And we will be filing that of course. I believe that some of the cases of course I don’t think we’ll be able to show jurisdiction and that’s all right,” he said.
Attorney David Lujan represents all of the plaintiffs who’ve filed suit in the federal court. He suspects jurisdiction issues could affect nearly half of the over forty cases he’s filed to date. “In those cases, we’ll simply stay and file in Superior Court of Guam. Simple as that,” he said.
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