PITTSBURGH (PA)
Beaver County Times
By: Joe Mandak - Associated Press Writer
03/24/2006
PITTSBURGH - The Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese must pay $1.7 million in punitive damages to a man abused by a priest in the 1970s because the former bishop's oversight of pedophile priests was "outrageous," an appeals court ruled.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruling ends the appellate court's third review of a 1994 verdict that awarded Michael S. Hutchison Jr. $519,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. With interest, the punitive damages now total about $1.7 million.
Hutchison's attorney, Richard Serbin, said documents detailing former Bishop James Hogan's mismanagement of other pedophile priests were the key to the decision.
In one instance, Hogan transferred a priest to a convent, but learned from the sisters there that the priest was still bringing children to his sleeping quarters.