BishopAccountability.org
	Alleged Church Victims Lose Quest for Damages through RICO Suit Associated Press, carried in PennLive November 7, 2007 http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-56/1194457458224320.xml&storylist=penn PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court has thrown out a civil racketeering lawsuit filed by 14 alleged victims of priest sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week upheld a lower court ruling that said the plaintiffs did not assert any injuries to their business or property, which the racketeering statute requires. Around the country, nearly all attempts to get around legal time limits by accusing church institutions of racketeering have failed. U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis, who issued the initial ruling, wrote in 2006 that he could only apply the law as written, not "force a moral wrong into a legal mold where it clearly does not fit." "The remedy lies with Congress, not with the courts," Davis wrote. The 3rd Circuit's ruling Tuesday was the latest setback for the alleged victims, who argue that the Roman Catholic archdiocese routinely concealed child abuse in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The law, known as RICO, is aimed at organized crime enterprises. The appeals court also found that the alleged victims could not sue as a protected class because minors are not recognized as such under the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Neither plaintiffs lawyer Stewart J. Eisenberg nor lawyer Jeffrey A. Lutsky, who represents the archdiocese, immediately returned phone messages Wednesday. "We pray that lawmakers will reform Pennsylvania's dangerously restrictive child-sex laws and open the courthouse doors so that victims can expose predators and protect children," Barbara Dorris, outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in St. Louis, said in a statement. The plaintiffs, who are mostly men, allege that they were raped or sexually abused as children between 1955 and 1985, and that the church cover-up continued until at least 2002. An explosive 2005 Philadelphia grand jury report found that archdiocesan leaders — including two former archbishops — hid child sexual abuse by transferring problem priests and failing to notify authorities. Prosecutors, however, concluded that they could not file criminal charges because of Pennsylvania's statute of limitations. Civil suits against priests and the archdiocese have largely failed for the same reason, relieving the archdiocese of the huge financial settlements that have bankrupt some other dioceses. Nationally, the clergy sex abuse scandal has cost the Catholic church more than $1.5 billion.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.