Mount Cashel Civil Trial Nearing the End of Arguments

By Barb Sweet
The Telegram
December 16, 2016

http://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/2016/12/16/mount-cashel-civil-trial-nearing-the-end-of-arguments.html

Lawyer for former orphanage residents Geoff Budden (left) chats with church lawyers Chris Blom and Susan Adam Metzler at the Mount Cashel civil trial Friday.

By the end of today, the Mount Cashel civil trial could be done with arguments and in the hands of Justice Alphonsus Faour to decide.

Weather has hampered closing arguments this week but lawyers were back in court Friday. It's possible they could finish up today or may have to sit for part of Saturday. The Catholic Church is represented by Toronto lawyers.

Faour's decision will not come until sometime in 2017.

The case involves four test case John Does who say the Catholic Church should be held liable for abuse the boys suffered at the hands of certain Christian Brothers at the infamous orphanage during the era late 1940s to early 1960s.

Susan Adam Metzler, who represents the Episcopal Corp. of St. John's, told the court there is no precedent outright that would hold the church for happened at an institution simply because It was Catholic.

"It's unique," Adam Metzler said.

She said the church and the Christian Brothers were independent of each other, operating as parallel organizations who intersected because of faith.

"It is unfathomable to think liability would be imposed in such a circumstance," she said.

Contact: bsweet@thetelegram.com