WHSV
May 21, 2008
http://www.whsv.com/virginiaap/headlines/19156689.html
The Delaware Supreme Court will not review an appeal from a Catholic religious order among the defendants in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by a Virginia man.
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U.S. Navy Commander Kenneth Whitwell is a Navy optometrist based in Quantico, Virginia.
He alleges that the Reverend Edward Smith, a Norbertine priest, molested him hundreds of times in the 1980s while he was a student at Archmere Academy.
The lawsuit takes advantage of the 2007 Child Victims Act, which abolished a two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits for victims of child sex abuse.
The Norbertine Fathers asked Superior Court Judge Robert Young to dismiss the case, claiming that the new law was unconstitutional.
Last month, Young ruled that the new law is not unconstitutional and refused to dismiss the case. However, Young sent the question to the Supreme Court, which declined to review the ruling.
That decision means the case can go forward. Trial is scheduled for January.
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