CHARLESTON (SC)
FITSNews [Irmo SC]
January 16, 2025
By FitsNews
The South Carolina supreme court has unanimously reversed a controversial decision by a scandal-scarred former circuit court judge – and upheld by the state’s court of appeals – which shielded the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, S.C. from liability in a decades-old sexual abuse case.
The ruling – which could open the floodgates for sexual abuse lawsuits against the church – focuses on the Palmetto State’s interpretation of “charitable immunity,” a provision of British law which arose in the mid-nineteenth century and holds that non-profits are exempt from certain claims against them.
“The question in this case requires us to embark upon some legal time travel in search of the answer,” noted justice Garrison Hill in the unanimous opinion of the court. “We conclude South Carolina has never extended charitable immunity to cover intentional torts. We therefore reverse the decision of the court of appeals and remand this case to the trial court.”
According to Hill, charitable immunity has been thoroughly discredited on “logic and experience” – and has become a “disfavored doctrine” which is “beating a steady retreat from many jurisdictions.”
By way of background, an unnamed petitioner – John Doe – sued multiple defendants tied to the diocese in 2018 alleging he had been “sexually molested” between 1969-1971 by two teachers at Sacred Heart Catholic School (now the Charleston Catholic School). Doe was between the ages of 12 and 14 at the time of the alleged abuse. Former S.C. circuit court judge Bentley Price ruled in favor of the diocese – concluding Doe could not bring his actions against the church due to the doctrine of charitable immunity.
In August 2023, the S.C. court of appeals upheld Price’s ruling – concluding “no court in this state had, at that time, restricted the charitable immunity doctrine to such an extent as to hold respondents liable for intentional torts.”
According to the appeals court’s ruling (.pdf), “complete immunity existed for charitable institutions” at the time the alleged abuse took place.
The supreme court shredded this conclusion, asserting that no “blanket immunity” existed for the diocese related to the claims Doe made against it.
“The doctrine of charitable immunity… does not bar (Doe)’s intentional tort claims against the Diocese,” Hill concluded.
Hill cited a landmark 1973 case, Jeffcoat v. Caine, which concluded the extension of charitable immunity to intentional torts was “not required by precedent, nor, we conclude, by reason or justice” and that the supreme court had “in every instance refused” to extend it to cover such claims.
“We know of no public policy, and none has been suggested, which would require the exemption of the charity from liability for an intentional tort; and we refuse to so extend the charitable immunity doctrine,” the late James Woodrow Lewis wrote for the unanimous majority in that case.
In addition to opening the door to future legal claims, the high court’s decision sends Doe’s case back to the circuit court for trial.
Count on our media outlet for updates on those proceedings as they move forward…
FITSNews has covered all manner of religious scandals in recent years – most notably the saga unfolding at the former Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, S.C. We’ve also pulled no punches in years past in calling out the Catholic Church over the systemic sex abuse scandals within its ranks.
“The church has compounded the crisis by failing to address it quickly and decisively,” I editorialized back in 2018. “Seriously, if there were ever a reason to tie people to a stake and light the match … this is it. But that is not what the church has done, and its failure is likely to do lasting damage to an institution established fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the early first century.”
Based on this week’s ruling from the court, it would appear additional accountability is coming…
THE RULING… Please see original article for the court ruling.