Doe v. Roman Catholic Archbishop etc.
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs filed suit against the Archdiocese for damages after plaintiffs were molested as two teenage boys by a monsignor in the Catholic church. Insurance Code section 11583 tolls the statute of limitations period once a “person” makes an “advance payment or partial payment of damages” unless he notifies the recipient of the applicable statute of limitations period or until the recipient hires a lawyer. The court concluded that the monsignor's contemporaneous gifts did not amount to such an “advance payment or partial payment of damages” to the extent those gifts were not solely to compensate for past sexual abuse but were also to facilitate criminal conduct such as “grooming” the boys for further sexual abuse or encouraging the boys not to report the past abuse they suffered. Because the victims’ civil complaint alleges that the monsignor’s contemporaneous gifts were for criminal as well as compensatory purposes, the trial court properly sustained the demurrer. Nevertheless, the court remanded to give plaintiffs the opportunity to amend their complaint to allege whether there were any solely compensatory payments made while the statute of limitations period had yet to expire.
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