NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua Telegraph
By ALBERT McKEON, Telegraph Staff
mckeona@telegraph-nh.com
Published: Saturday, Jul. 16, 2005
In a decision that examined secular obligations for those with religious commitments, the state Supreme Court ruled that a church cannot be sued for failing to protect children from parental abuse.
Two sisters had sought damages from the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in Wilton and the national Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, charging local church elders did not notify civil authorities about the abuse Paul Berry had inflicted on them as youths.
But the state’s highest court on Friday sided with a lower court in dismissing their suit. The Supreme Court ruled that although the elders had a moral obligation to intervene, they had no common law duty.
“Unfortunately the church has been told it is not responsible,” attorney Marci Hamilton, who represented the sisters, said in a telephone interview from Pennsylvania.