BALTIMORE (MD)
Insurance Journal [San Diego CA]
February 4, 2025
By Andrew G. Simpson
The Maryland Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, has upheld the Child Victims Act as constitutional.
The Child Victims Act (CVA) enacted in 2023 eliminates restrictions put in place in 2017 that had prevented many adult victims of child sexual abuse from suing.
After the CVA went into effect on October 1, 2023, numerous adult plaintiffs filed child sexual abuse claims in state and federal courts in Maryland. Their claims of having been victims of sex abuse when they were minors had been time-barred before October 1, 2023.
The high court addressed three cases where lower courts had dismissed constitutional challenges to the CVA by institutions being sued for alleged child sexual abuse. The challenges were brought by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. which includes five counties in Maryland; The Key School, Inc., a private school in Annapolis; and the Harford County board of education.
The parties agreed that the 2023 CVA would violate the Maryland Constitution if it retroactively abrogated vested rights. The state’s high court found that the 2017 statute of limitations did not create such a right and thus the 2023 CVA does not take away a vested right to be free of liability.
In its analysis, the high court distinguished between a statute of limitations and a statute of repose and weighed whether an ordinary statute of limitations creates a vested right to be free of liability. A statute of limitations typically makes a remedy for a cause of action unavailable, while a statute of repose eliminates the cause of action itself.
The court found that while the running of an ordinary limitations period does not provide a potential defendant with a vested right in remaining free from liability, the running of a statute of repose period does.
Based on its plain language and history, the court decided that the 2017 provision was a statute of limitations, not repose, and thus did not create a vested right for the institutions being sued.
The court also considered the evidence before the General Assembly concerning the historical prevalence of child sexual abuse, prior cover-ups, and significantly delayed reporting by victims and concluded that the elimination of the statute of limitations in the 2023 Act “bore a real and substantial relation to the problem being addressed.” It further held that it was within the power of the General Assembly to retroactively abrogate that statute of limitations.
“The Child Victims Act of 2023 is therefore constitutional as applied to the defendants in the three cases before us,” the 4-3 opinion concludes.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown hailed the ruling. “Today’s decision by the Supreme Court of Maryland confirms that the passage of time will not prevent survivors from seeking justice for sexual abuse they suffered as children. I am proud of the role our office played in defending this landmark statute,” Brown stated.
Other Rulings
The Maryland ruling comes soon after high courts in two other states weighed in on similar child sex abuse laws,
North Carolina’s highest court last Friday upheld a law that gave adult victims of child sexual abuse two additional years to seek civil damages, rejecting arguments that the temporary window violated constitutional protections for those facing claims that otherwise could no longer be pursued in court.
Last week, in a 5-2 opinion, the Maine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a 2021 state law that eliminated the statute of limitations for claims of sexual abuse of minors.
Andrew G. Simpson
Simpson is a freelance writer and editor. He retired as Chief Content Officer for Wells Media Group in July, 2022 after 18 years with the company.