Attorney to seek class-action status in church suit
Louisville, Kentucky --
Class-action status is being sought in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at a Roman Catholic orphanage in Jefferson County over a 50 year period.
Attorney William McMurry said he wants to expand the suit beyond the current 50 plaintiffs because he believes there are at least several hundred other victims. Judge Denise Clayton will consider the request at a hearing Monday.
A class-action designation would allow victims to make a claim without being publicly identified and would lead to advertising that would notify former orphanage residents who may live across the country and not know of the litigation of their rights, McMurry said.
McMurry, working with attorney Ann Oldfather, represented 243 plaintiffs who settled with the Archdiocese of Louisville for $25.7 million in 2003 over sexual abuse by parish priests and others.
The suit filed last year against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and the Archdiocese of Louisville's Catholic Charities alleges sexual abuse and other physical abuse during about 50 years, primarily at three orphanages.
The St. Thomas orphanage near Anchorage, the St. Vincent orphanage in Clifton and the St.Thomas-St.Vincent orphanage were operated by Catholic Charities and staffed by the order of religious sisters. The combined orphanage was created after a 1952 merger and closed in 1983.
The suits allege abuse by several nuns, volunteers at the orphanage and the late Rev. Herman J. Lammers, who was director of Catholic Charities from 1939-76 and lived at St. Thomas.
Read the article at messenger-inquirer.com Dated July 24, 2005
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Class-action status is being sought in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at a Roman Catholic orphanage in Jefferson County over a 50 year period.
Attorney William McMurry said he wants to expand the suit beyond the current 50 plaintiffs because he believes there are at least several hundred other victims. Judge Denise Clayton will consider the request at a hearing Monday.
A class-action designation would allow victims to make a claim without being publicly identified and would lead to advertising that would notify former orphanage residents who may live across the country and not know of the litigation of their rights, McMurry said.
McMurry, working with attorney Ann Oldfather, represented 243 plaintiffs who settled with the Archdiocese of Louisville for $25.7 million in 2003 over sexual abuse by parish priests and others.
The suit filed last year against the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and the Archdiocese of Louisville's Catholic Charities alleges sexual abuse and other physical abuse during about 50 years, primarily at three orphanages.
The St. Thomas orphanage near Anchorage, the St. Vincent orphanage in Clifton and the St.Thomas-St.Vincent orphanage were operated by Catholic Charities and staffed by the order of religious sisters. The combined orphanage was created after a 1952 merger and closed in 1983.
The suits allege abuse by several nuns, volunteers at the orphanage and the late Rev. Herman J. Lammers, who was director of Catholic Charities from 1939-76 and lived at St. Thomas.
Read the article at messenger-inquirer.com Dated July 24, 2005
posted by God Almighty Himself at 7:16 PM
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