$525,500 for 1950s Priestly Abuse

By June Seattle
Courthouse News Service
April 20, 2015

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/04/20/525-500-for-1950s-priestly-abuse.htm

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore. will pay $525,000 to settle 50-year-old allegations from an alleged victim of a pedophile priest.

The pseudonymous Martin Voe claimed the Rev. Maurice Grammond sexually abused him while presiding at St. Charles Church in Portland in the late 1950s.

The archdiocese issued an apology in 2000 and settled a lawsuit with 25 men who claimed Grammond had molested them. Grammond died in 2002.

Voe sued the archdiocese in 2008, three years after a claims bar date the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Oregon set in January 2005, regarding existing claims against the archdiocese or archbishop.

The Archdiocese of Portland was the first Roman Catholic diocese in the nation to file for bankruptcy, in 2004, overwhelmed by costs arising from sexual abuse lawsuits.

Voe said he did not realize he had been molested at the time the other men sued.

The archdiocese objected, arguing that Voe's own brother filed a successful lawsuit in 2001 related to abuse he suffered from Grammond, and also received a mailed notice by the bankruptcy court about the 2005 cutoff.

Voe's federal claim was dismissed, but reinstated by the 9th Circuit on appeal.

Voe and the archdiocese agreed to resolve the case on March 18.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman and U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman approved a settlement that will pay Voe $525,000 from the Future Claims Trust. The trust was part of the Portland Archdiocese's bankruptcy plan and sets a $20 million cap on funds available to pay claims against the archdiocese through 2023.