Pennsylvania Priest Abuse Victims
Title: Pennsylvania Priest Sex Abuse Victims Who Sued in New Jersey Facing Jurisdictional Fight
Author: Charles Toutant
Publisher: New Jersey Law Journal via law.com
Date: 24JUN2020
The suits generally claim that priests from Pennsylvania parishes sexually abused the plaintiffs at locations in New Jersey. But the Pennsylvania defendants are contesting jurisdiction in New Jersey and have found some recent success.
Pennsylvania litigants who flocked to New Jersey after the state relaxed its statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse may not find the court rolling out the welcome mat.
After New Jersey’s law went into effect in December 2019, dozens of suits were filed by adults who were abused during childhood, including at least eight against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and two against the Diocese of Allentown. The suits generally claim priests from Pennsylvania parishes sexually abused the plaintiffs at locations in New Jersey.
Pennsylvania plaintiffs are filing in New Jersey because their home state lacks a comparable law granting relief from the statute of limitations. But the Pennsylvania defendants have had success contesting jurisdiction in New Jersey.
On Monday a federal judge in Trenton granted a motion to dismiss sexual abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia after finding a lack of jurisdiction. The case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. And on June 19, a Superior Court judge in Cape May County dismissed without prejudice a suit against the archdiocese based on a jurisdictional argument.
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