KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal
By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Dozens of plaintiffs have refiled claims in the past week alleging they were sexually abused at Catholic orphanages and schools, and they are again seeking class-action status for their lawsuits.
The filings came after a Jefferson Circuit judge rejected a similar appeal for class-action status last month in a lawsuit filed against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville and its Catholic Charities agency.
Judge Denise Clayton ruled that the plaintiffs' claims did not fit the criteria for a class-action suit, which is used when people have similar claims of injury against the same institution.
"The plaintiffs have claims of varying degrees against several different alleged perpetrators that span from the 1930s to the 1970s," Clayton wrote in her Sept. 28 ruling. "There is a wide variance in the degree of injury alleged."