In late 2003, a state Supreme Court judge dismissed a $150 million civil lawsuit against the Rev. James Quinn, ruling too many years had passed to pursue allegations the priest sexually abused John Zumpano while he was a youth during the 1960s.

Quinn

On Wednesday, the state Court of Appeals decided it will review the dismissal to determine if it should be upheld or reversed.

Zumpano's attorney, Frank Policelli, said Thursday he is arguing the 10-year statute of limitations should not apply in this case. If the alleged sexual abuse did in fact occur, he said, then perhaps a young Zumpano would have been too traumatized to file charges in a timely manner.

"Zumpano did not bring his action when he should have because the abuse caused him to become mentally incapable to protect and safeguard his legal rights," Policelli said of the allegations.

On Thursday, Danielle Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, said she was unaware of the ruling and would not comment further at this time.

Quinn has denied the allegations. Last December, an internal investigation by the diocese found "insufficient evidence" to substantiate the sex abuse allegations. At the time, Policelli had downplayed that finding and said an internal investigation is no place to decide guilt or innocence.

In May 2003, Zumpano, now in his 50s, accused Quinn of sexually abusing him repeatedly in the mid-to-late 1960s when the priest served at St. Agnes Church in East Utica and as area director for the Catholic Youth Organization.

When state Supreme Court Justice Norman I. Siegel dismissed the lawsuit in 2003 due to the statute of limitations, Siegel encouraged Policelli to appeal the decision.

"I don't want anybody to get the impression that I in any way disbelieve what your client has said," Siegel told Policelli at the time, according to court transcripts.

Last December, a state appellate court upheld that dismissal and in May, the state's Court of Appeals first denied permission to hear Zumpano's case. Two months later, however, the court reversed its earlier decision and granted a motion to appeal.

The ruling in a similar legal case downstate regarding the statute of limitations may have motivated the Court of Appeals to change its mind, Policelli said.

Now, Policelli said he hopes to present his case to the seven judges of the state's highest court before the end of the year to determine if a hearing should take place regarding the allegations and how they relate to the statute of limitations.

"He waited for 41 years, so he can wait one more year before he has his day in court," Policelli said of Zumpano. "And the evidence is clear and convincing that we can prove our case."

"I think this is the hugest victory we've had since we started litigating these cases," he said.

Policelli said the court's decision was a significant victory for all cases of sex abuse allegations that have been set aside due to the statute of limitations. "Now the Court of Appeals, once and for all, is going to take a good hard look" at the fairness of allowing someone to hide behind that law if there is strong evidence of abuse, he said.

Policelli also handled another previous $150 million civil lawsuit against Quinn and the diocese. On June 30, however, a civil jury found Quinn and the diocese did not try to conceal facts about their supervision of a 12-year-old Albert Piacentino at the time he drowned during a church picnic in 1968.