Victims lawyers defend Maryland’s Child Victims Act following Washington archdiocese challenge

Attorneys for several men who say members of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Washington sexually abused them in Maryland decades ago Friday defended the new law that allowed them to sue the Catholic Church: The Child Victims Act.

The filings from plaintiffs’ lawyers respond to a legal challenge from the Washington diocese last month, with the church’s attorneys arguing Maryland’s child victims law is unconstitutional, and that the men’s lawsuits, filed in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, should be dismissed as a result.

Archdiocese attorneys contend the legislature granted defendants immunity from child sex abuse lawsuits after the victim turns 38, when it expanded the statute of limitations to that age in 2017. They argue their legal protection stems from a rare provision in the law known as a statute of repose, which created “vested rights” that lawmakers cannot simply change.

Lawyers for the victims in the lawsuits disagree.

In their filing Friday, attorneys for a man who sued the Washington diocese in Montgomery County said the Washington diocese’s lawyers’ interpretation of the law runs afoul of “well-settled principles set forth by the Maryland Supreme Court.”

“Applied here, those principles demonstrate that the law at issue here is a statute of limitations, which the General Assembly is free to modify under Maryland’s constitution,” wrote attorneys Robert K. Jenner, Philip C. Federico and Steven J. Kelly, all of whom are representing the man suing in Montgomery Circuit Court.

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Even if the 2017 law granted the church and other entities immunity from civil actions stemming from decades old child sex abuse, those legal protections would not extend to the archdiocese’s “longstanding and extensive cover-up.” The lawsuits in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties allege the archdiocese’s actions amounted to “fraudulent concealment,” meaning the lawsuits might be able to proceed even if 2017 provided some immunity.

The Baltimore Sun does not name victims of sexual abuse.

The back-and-forth filings cut to the heart of a legal battle that likely won’t be resolved until the state Supreme Court determines whether the child victims law is constitutional.

Anticipating an immediate challenge in court, legislators last spring included a provision in the law, which took effect Oct. 1, allowing for a mid-lawsuit appeal. The appeal comes at a common stage of civil litigation where defendants ask the court to throw out a lawsuit on legal grounds.

Typically, when a trial court denies a motion to dismiss a lawsuit, the case proceeds toward trial. While plaintiffs can almost always appeal if a judge decides to throw out a lawsuit, the Child Victims Act allows the defendant to appeal if a judge rules it’s constitutional and that the case should go to trial.

The impact of the legal proceedings in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties is being felt around the state: Judges, facing the prospect of going ahead with lengthy litigation based on a law with questions looming over its constitutionality, are likely to freeze those cases until the high court decides on the Child Victims Act.

A class action complaint, the lawsuit in Prince George’s County alleges three men were sexually abused as children at the Catholic schools or churches they attended in the suburbs of Washington. The men “have suffered serious and permanent physical, emotional, and financial injuries,” because of the abuse. They say the Archdiocese either knew, or should’ve known, about its priests’ predatory ways.

In the Montgomery County lawsuit, a man says he suffered “horrific” sexual abuse while attending a church in Gaithersburg as a child at the hands of two priests, including one with a well-document history of abuse.

The man “experienced significant anguish, culminating in a mental breakdown,” because of the abuse, the Montgomery County lawsuit says. “In addition to extreme emotional distress, he has experienced physical sickness and dramatic weight loss.”

The Archdiocese of Washington denied allegations raised in both complaints in the legal filings where they argued the child victims law was unconstitutional.

In their filing Friday, attorneys for the man suing in Montgomery County cited a report from Maryland’s Attorney General documenting decades of abuse and torture of children by clergy in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Laying out the findings of a four-year investigation, the report released in April detailed evidence of 156 clergy and other church officials abusing at least 600 children dating to the 1940s.

The legislature passed the Child Victims Act shortly after the attorney general’s report became public.

“With the passage of the CVA, the General Assembly promoted a state policy that protected the rights of childhood abuse survivors … providing a right and a remedy for years of torture and abuse,” Jenner, Federico and Kelly said in their Friday filing. “By enacting the CVA, the General Assembly acted well within its power to remedy a societal ill of enormous proportions.”

This article will be updated.