MANCHESTER (NH)
WMUR-TV, ABC-9 [Manchester NH]
June 4, 2024
By Ray Brewer
Defense says it’s too late to file lawsuit alleging abuse in 1970s
A judge is deciding whether a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse in the mid-1970s at a Catholic camp in New Hampshire can go forward.
The abuse allegedly happened at Camp Fatima in Gilmanton Iron Works. The Diocese of Manchester is also named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the abuse happened at Camp Fatima from approximately 1974-76. The defendants include the bishop of Manchester and the associated camps Bernadette and Fatima. The defense said the suit should be dismissed without a trial.
“The statute of limitations would bar his claims at this point,” said defense attorney James Armilly.
The complaint goes into graphic detail about the nature of the alleged abuse, but the defense said that’s not what’s at issue.
“There’s no dispute, your honor, the conduct that’s alleged here occurred in the mid-1970s,” Armilly said.
The defense said that under the statute of limitations in effect at the time, the plaintiff would have had to bring his lawsuit by the mid-1980s, but he didn’t do so.
“At this point, the defendants have a constitutionally vested right, and the case law is clear that right cannot be deprived by further legislative action,” Armilly said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the law has changed.
“What we’re really talking about here, your honor, is the claim that the defendants had a vested right in evading scrutiny, evading accountability,” said the plaintiff’s attorney Scott Harris.
The lawyers for the plaintiff noted that the Legislature has made several extensions to the statute of limitations in such cases before finally deciding how to treat certain instances of child sexual abuse.
“They then determined it was only appropriate that there be no statute of limitations in the event of this sort of child abuse,” Harris said.
There’s no word on when the judge might make a decision, as she took the matter under advisement.