Court Upholds Time Limit for Clergy Abuse Claims

San Francisco Chronicle
March 29, 2012

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/29/national/a152037D57.DTL

California's highest court has sided with Oakland's Roman Catholic Diocese and refused to reinstate a lawsuit brought by six brothers who allege they were molested by a priest during the 1970s.

The California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 Thursday that the brothers had waited too long to bring their claims involving the now deceased priest, Donald Broderson, who was forced to retire amid similar allegations in 1993.

The state Legislature opened a one-year window for old clergy abuse complaints in 2003. But the brothers' lawyers contended the time limit should not apply to the men because they did not make the link between their problems and what happened to them as children until later.

At least eight other lawsuits based on the same delayed discovery theory have been on hold in California pending the court's ruling in the Oakland case.