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A 4-year-old law removing the statute of limitations for lawsuits about sexual abuse does not retroactively apply, Maine’s highest court ruled Tuesday.
Robert Dupuis and 12 other people filed lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland alleging sexual abuse when they were minors. The lawsuits were filed after a law change in October 2021 lifted the statute of limitations on those claims.
The Maine diocese challenged the process of applying the law retroactively, leading to arguments before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in November 2023.
If someone is sexually assaulted as a child after 2000, there is no statute of limitations for them to file a lawsuit as an adult. The law change in 2021 lifted the limitations for children who were sexually abused in the decades before 2000.
Retroactively applying the law violates centuries of precedent and parts of the Maine Declaration of Rights and the state constitution, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a 5-2 opinion Tuesday.
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.
“Nothing will stop survivors from fighting for justice and exposing sexual predators as well as institutions that harbor them,” said Kathryn Robb, executive director of Enough Abuse who helped pass the 2021 law. “The fight continues.”
The inciting lawsuit in 2022 was brought by Robert Dupuis, who was allegedly sexually abused by a priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Old Town in the 1960s.
“There is no statute of limitations on the enduring pain caused by childhood sexual abuse,” said Michael Bigos of Berman & Simmons, a law firm who represent Dupuis and other victims. “These survivors deserve accountability from those that enabled child sex abuse and to receive long overdue justice.”
Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill and associate justices Andrew Mead, Andrew Horton, Catherine Connors and Thomas Humphrey ruled the law cannot be applied retroactively. Associate Justices Rick Lawrence and Wayne Douglas dissented.
“We have declared flatly, many times, with no articulated restriction, in varied types of cases, both common law and statutorily created, that a claim cannot be revived after its statute of limitations has expired,” the majority opinion said.
Maine’s supreme court has always adhered to protecting rights granted by the Constitution, as did the state’s founders, the 41-page majority opinion said.
“These rights are not subject to destruction however compelling the reason for destroying the right,” that opinion said.
The non-unanimous decisions and the focus on “vested rights” instead of the more modern approach by other states, makes Maine an anomaly that conflicts with the majority of other courts, Bigos said.
The state’s Constitution does not require the decision the majority reached, the 58-page dissent said. It is the first time the state’s highest court has “squarely” dealt with if the Constitution prohibits the Legislature from creating a law that retroactively removes the statute of limitations.
Maine’s Constitution does not prohibit a law that retroactively allows the lifting of limitations, but other states do prohibit it, the dissent said.
Society’s evolving and better understanding of trauma supports the need to eliminate the statute of limitations, according to the opinion.
The average age for someone to report childhood sexual abuse is 52, said Rep. Lori Gramlich previously, D-Old Orchard Beach. She was a sponsor of the 2021 bill.
The likelihood of a delayed report “presents an obvious problem” for child sexual abuse victims, the dissent said. For Dupuis, and the 12 other people with similar claims, that delay in processing the trauma put them beyond the statute of limitations.
However, the issue here is reviving a claim after the statute of limitations expired, the majority ruled. Once a person’s right to be past the statute of limitations has expired, it cannot be brought back.
“Now, for those affected by this decision, we pivot and focus on the decades of cover-ups by the Church that give rise to other causes of action that could toll the statute of limitations,” Bigos said. “We believe evidence shows the Diocese kept enabling dozens of abusers.
“We are not giving up.”