The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will decide the legality of a 2-year-old law that removed the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits brought by people who were sexually abused as children.
Attorneys argued about whether the state constitution allows the retroactive removal of statute of limitations before the supreme court justices Thursday. Multiple groups of people who were sexually abused by Catholic clergy sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland after the Maine Legislature lifted the statute of limitations.
The state’s Catholic Diocese is facing lawsuits from at least 75 people, alleging it knew about child sexual abuse by clergy and teachers and allowed it to continue. Cases date back to the 1950s, including one woman who said she was abused by priests at a seminary the order ran in Bar Harbor and a retreat house in Bucksport.
The average age for someone to report childhood sexual abuse is 52, said Rep. Lori Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach. She was a sponsor of the 2021 bill.
“It seems to me fairly apparent that the only point of these cases is to get the money, which is a liability from which this diocese has been immune for upwards of 65 years on one of these cases,” diocese attorney Gerald Petruccelli said.
Child sexual abuse is one of the few narrow categories where complaints can be brought later, like claims for injuries from Agent Orange, asbestos and fraudlent securities transactions, attorney Michael Bigos, who is representing the survivors, said.
“This case is about the will of the people upsetting the diocese’s near expectation of getting away with enabling child sex abuse and cover ups,” Bigos said. “There has never been a way to enable child sex abuse.”
When liability ends and if someone can be liable after they believed the statute of limitations ended was debated by both sides. Justices asked if removing the statute of limitations as it applies to the diocese actually imposed new liability to the church.
That isn’t the case here, where the law was just removing the procedural bar, Assistant Attorney General Jason Anton said. The lawsuits can return to the local courts and argue about what law governs the claims, he said.
One way to look at retroactively removing the statute limitations is similar to awakening something that has lied dormant for years, Associate Justice Andrew Mead said. He questioned if that’s something that is horrifying to people that believe they no longer have to worry about liability because the statute of limitations has expired.
A lawsuit could have been brought in the 1960s or when the abuse occurred, Anton said. Removing the statute of limitations does not impose a new legal way to view the past conduct, he said.
These arguments are about defining the Maine Constitution, Petruccelli said. If the 2021 law is allowed to stand, it will greatly expand the Legislature’s power, he said.
“In 200 years, the Legislature has respected the Constitution and has never once tried this,” Petruccelli said. “It would be an expansion of Legislative power that has been rejected by this court multiple times for 200 years.”
The Maine Supreme Court will issue a written opinion at a future date.