SOUTH DAKOTA
San Francisco Chronicle
CHET BROKAW, Associated Press
Updated 12:39 p.m., Thursday, September 6, 2012
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday that nearly 20 former students who allege they were sexually abused decades ago at an American Indian boarding school cannot continue their lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls and the religious organizations that ran the school.
In two rulings, the high court upheld a trial judge’s decision to dismiss the lawsuits against the diocese and several groups that ran St. Paul’s School in Marty at the time of the alleged abuse more than 35 years ago.
The Supreme Court said the students waited too long to sue Blue Cloud Abbey of northeastern South Dakota, Pennsylvania-based Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Oblate Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament of Marty, which the school and provided priests, nuns and others to work there.
The justices also said the students cannot sue the diocese because it did not operate or control the school and it was not acting as custodians of the school’s students.
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