CONNECTICUT
Minutesman News Center
Published: Wednesday, April 17, 2013
By Meg Learson Grosso
mgrosso@fairfieldminuteman.com
Twitter: @mlearsongrosso
A judge has ruled that twenty-three Haitians may go forward with their lawsuit against Fairfield University, Father Paul E. Carrier, S. J., the Society of Jesus of New England (Jesuits), Hope Carter, and the Knights of Malta–the people and institutions that the lawsuit says should have protected the homeless boys from the sexual abuse they suffered in a school founded for street children by 1992 Fairfield University graduate Douglas Perlitz.
United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny denied the motions of Fairfield University, Carrier, the Jesuits, Carter, and the Knights of Malta, to dismiss the lawsuit on some grounds and granted them on others. The judge said they could be sued for negligent supervision of Perlitz, for negligent supervision of Father Carrier and for a breach of fiduciary duty to the young boys. On the other hand, the judge wrote, in his March 31, decision, that the defendants could not be sued for vicarious liability, or for secondary liability. Nor said the judge, could they be sued on the grounds that either Father Carrier or Hope Carter gave assistance to Perlitz, with the purpose of aiding Perlitz in his wrongdoing.
Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney who won a large settlement against the Archdiocese of Boston in a Catholic clergy sex-abuse scandal, is arguing the case for the twenty-three boys, some of whom are now young men. The lawsuit asks damages of $20 million each for the sexual abuse they suffered from Perlitz between 1999 and 2007 when they were students at Project Pierre Toussaint, the residential school founded in Cap Haitien, Haiti by Perlitz, who, in 2002, was the speaker at Fairfield University’s commencement.
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