PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
by Maria Panaritis & Karen Langley – Staff Writers
HARRISBURG — In a move that ultimately could doom the measure, a key state House committee Tuesday broadened a child sex abuse bill to allow victims who sue to pursue potentially limitless damages from both private and governmental institutions, including public-school districts.
Under the amended bill, which sparked some debate among members, government entities would lose elements of sovereign immunity, exposing them to large liability awards. It is attached to a new version of a controversial bill that died last year amid battles waged by victim advocates, the Catholic Church, and the insurance lobby.
Tuesday’s vote to lift caps on the amount of money sex abuse litigants can collect in lawsuits against governmental entities is viewed by some supporters of expanding child sex-abuse victims’ rights as a “poison pill.”
That is because in at least one other state, Colorado, legislation to expose government institutions to lawsuits unleashed the opposition of the powerful school boards association and failed. Archibishop Charles Chaput, then archbishop in Denver, was key in defeating that Colorado effort.
The issue of capping public civic payouts was not part of last year’s legislative fight in Harrisburg. That bill died over a different controversial provision: One that sought to let adult victims of decades-old abuse to sue private institutions. That provision is expected to be added to the House bill in the weeks ahead.
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