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  Iowa Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit against Diocese

Associated Press, carried in KWQC
April 14, 2007

http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6366638&nav=7k7N

Des Moines, Iowa The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a former altar boy who claimed he was abused by a priest during the 1960s at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Ryan.

The lawsuit, filed in 2004, claimed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque was responsible because it employed the Reverend Nicholas Cigrand. He died in 1976.

The diocese filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming Cigrand was never an employee of the diocese, but was an employee of the church, which was a separate legal entity.

A district judge in Dubuque County dismissed the case after it was found that the man failed to provide evidence to support his claims.

In today's ruling, the Supreme Court says the man would have had to prove that Cigrand was employed by the diocese and that church officials knew of the abuse.

The court says he failed to prove either.

 
 

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