Jefferson City, USA - The question of whether people with repressed memories can collect from the Roman Catholic Church on new claims of old sex abuse was argued before the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday, after lower courts could not agree.
The eventual decision is sure to have a significant financial impact on the church in Missouri and on those trying to win damages over allegations of misconduct by priests that may date back decades.
The case involves accusations that two faculty members at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis County sexually abused a teenage student named Michael Powel in the early 1970s.
The case centers on whether it is too late for Powel to sue the faculty members, Chaminade and the Marianist Province.
Powel, who is now 47 and lives in Florida, says he was abused from age 15 to 17.
His attorney, Joseph Bauer Jr., told the Supreme Court judges Thursday morning that Powel knew the abuse had happened but repressed the memory at age 17 and did not recall the events again until more than 20 years later.
Bauer said Missouri's statute of limitations should not start running until Powel remembered the alleged abuse and realized the adverse effects it had on his life.
Bauer also said that as a minor many miles from his home in Connecticut, Powel was legally incapable of acting on his own behalf.
Gerard Noce, one of Chaminade's attorneys, countered that Powel would have been aware of the alleged abuse and the adverse effects it had on him and by law should have filed suit within five years of turning 21.
Noce argued that the statute of limitations on civil suits cannot be put on hold, even if Powel repressed the memories of the alleged abuse.
Outside the courtroom, Noce said it was unfair to sue Chaminade after so many years. The only legal claim against Chaminade is that it failed to properly supervise the priests, Noce said, and the former faculty members' supervisor is now dead.
"They're trying to make this different than any other money damage lawsuit," Noce said.
Powel's case started in St. Louis Circuit Court in 2002, but a judge tossed it out, saying he was bound by a 2000 appeals court decision that said an earlier sex abuse case had been filed too late.
When Powel appealed, a three-judge panel of the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals said in May that it would no longer follow the prior decision, which had been issued by a different set of judges. The newer panel said Powel demonstrated that there were contradictory facts a jury should be allowed to decide.
The Eastern District then transferred the case to the Missouri Supreme Court to resolve the conflicts between lower courts.
Jonathan Haden, a lawyer who represents the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, said Thursday that there were 15 to 20 cases awaiting the court's decision in the Powel case.
Haden and Noce said the Supreme Court could decide that Powel had filed too late, ending his lawsuit, or that he did not file too late, sending the matter to trial in St. Louis. Haden said the high court could also decide there wasn't enough evidence to make a decision and send it back to the trial court.
From 30 to 35 civil suits alleging sexual abuse have been settled by the Archdiocese of St. Louis in recent years, its attorney, Bernard Huger, said earlier this week.