CHARLESTON (SC)
The Post and Courier [Charleston SC]
December 10, 2024
By Nick Reynolds
South Carolina’s highest court is evaluating whether a long-defunct state law protecting charities from lawsuits exempts the Catholic Diocese of Charleston from paying damages in a decades-old sexual abuse case at the former Sacred Heart Catholic School in the early-1970s.
The case, filed in 2018 in the wake of a massive class action settlement against the diocese in the 2000s and 2010s, weighs whether the diocese was negligent and subsequently sought to cover up sexual abuse claims by a pre-teenaged John Doe while attending classes at Sacred Heart between 1969 and 1971.
Both teachers involved, an attorney for the plaintiff said Dec. 10, died long ago, leaving the John Doe in question to seek compensation from the church itself.
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The church is claiming immunity under an obscure and long-defunct legal change exempting charitable organizations from liability beyond claims based on mere negligence.
While the provision, known as charitable immunity, was overturned by a state Supreme Court decision in 1981, the allegations in the case predate that ruling. And even then, attorneys for the church argue, the teachers’ crimes were not committed in the service of their roles as educators within the diocese, clearing them of any real criminal liability in the abuse.
Attorneys for the plaintiff allege the church was potentially guilty of a number of other crimes, including a breach of its fiduciary duty, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraudulent concealment, civil conspiracy, negligent retention or supervision, breach of contract and breach of contract accompanied by a fraudulent act.
“The allegations here are that the diocese is liable for what the diocese has done,” John Richardson, the attorney for the plaintiff, argued. “We don’t need to breach the question of whether they could be liable for the potential for what somebody” has done.
Lower courts have already disagreed. Former Circuit Judge Bentley Price issued a summary judgment in the case in 2020, specifically citing the doctrine of charitable immunity.
That was followed up by an appeals court decision last summer, in which Chief Judge H. Bruce Williams wrote the church’s charitable designation at the time of the alleged injury — as well as established legal precedent at the time supporting complete immunity — discharged them of any criminal liability in the case.
Richardson argued both courts misread the case law underpinning his arguments in that case.
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Even if the plaintiff wins the case, a decision is far off in the future.
Tuesday’s arguments solely contemplate whether the case can actually move forward to proceed to a jury trial, a process which could take months or even years to complete under the current judicial backlog.
The Diocese of Charleston has been contacted for comment. The school had previously operated in Charleston.