The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider blocking a sexual-abuse lawsuit in the California courts against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, an action that could have multimillion-dollar implications for the already financially stressed church in southeastern Wisconsin.
The justices, without comment, are allowing the lawsuit to proceed against the archdiocese, which is accused of transferring a known pedophile priest - the late Siegfried Widera - from Wisconsin to work as a priest in California.
That action may encourage other lawsuits against the archdiocese, which had been virtually immune to such civil litigation in Wisconsin courts since the mid-1990s because of rulings by the state Supreme Court here.
The same team of attorneys who filed this lawsuit indicated Monday that they are likely to add the archdiocese as a defendant in lawsuits by seven other victims of Widera that are pending against the Diocese of Orange County in California.
"I strongly expect that we will be adding the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in the remaining cases," said Stephen Rubino, an attorney from Margate, N.J., who is co-counsel in the cases with attorney Katherine Freberg of Irvine, Calif.
Asked about the potential size of settlements or judgments in the cases, Rubino said they are now in mediation with the Diocese of Orange County.
"I am not in a position, nor is Kathy, to talk about numbers, but they are sizable indeed," Rubino said.
In a previous interview, Freberg said liability for the Milwaukee Archdiocese "will be significant" in the Widera cases. She noted that she settled a suit involving a different priest for $5.2 million with the Diocese of Orange County and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in August 2001.
Jerry Topczewski, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, said Monday that it was premature to speculate about the financial implications of the Supreme Court's action. That's because the question was one of court jurisdiction, and the merits of the lawsuit have not yet been addressed.
"Certainly, we believe our claim had merit, but we certainly respect their decision to deny the petition to hear the case," Topczewski said. "And now we'll get to work on resolving the issue at hand on the merits of the case, in the best interests of everyone involved."
Differing on significance
Rubino termed the Supreme Court's action "enormously significant" and indicated that it clears the way for more lawsuits in California against Milwaukee and dioceses in other states. And, although it sets no precedent in other states, it will help make jurisdictional arguments there more persuasive, he said.
G. Robert Blakey, a professor at the University of Notre Dame's Law School, said the Supreme Court set no national precedent because it refused to consider the case. To Blakey, the ability of a state court to assert jurisdiction under "long-arm statutes" is basic law.
He is not aware of any similar cases in which a plaintiff in one state attempted to sue a bishop or diocese in another state, but that's not because of legal impediments, he said. Until relatively recently, people simply have been reluctant to sue priests and dioceses, he said.
Jeffrey Anderson, an attorney in St. Paul, Minn., who has represented more than 800 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, termed it audacious of archdiocesan officials to think that "well-established law" should not apply to them. And that, he contended, was a byproduct of the church in Wisconsin being insulated from lawsuits.
"I think it's terribly significant here in Wisconsin," Peter Isely, a regional spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said of the Supreme Court action. "It further illustrates the fact that you can pursue justice against Wisconsin bishops from outside of Wisconsin, and it just further shows the really horrible legal situation in Wisconsin that still has to be changed."
The lawsuit is playing out against a backdrop of red ink for the archdiocese. Facing a $1 million deficit in the current budget, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan recently made the decision to eliminate 23 jobs in his central administration offices for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Dolan cited the rocky economy, a decline in investment income and rising health care costs. But he said that the major reason for the shortfall was actual and anticipated costs associated with the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Priest was wanted in 2 states
In the case that was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Eric Paino alleges that Widera molested him in California in 1985, when Paino was 8 years old. Widera, who later left the priesthood, committed suicide last year by jumping from the balcony of a Mexican hotel as police were closing in on him after an extensive manhunt.
Widera had been on the run for nearly a year. He was facing four counts of enticing a child and five counts of indecent behavior with a child in Wisconsin's Walworth County. And in California's Orange County, prosecutors had issued a warrant for his arrest on 33 felony counts of child molestation.
The California Supreme Court ruled this year that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee could be sued, and that ruling was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1973, while an associate pastor at a Port Washington church, Widera pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Fredonia and was sentenced to three years' probation.