Fraud Claim Against Diocese For Nondisclosure of Priest's Past Sex Abuse Is Dismissed

In Doe v. Diocese of New Ulm, (MN Ct. App., Aug. 31, 2010), the Minnesota Court of Appeals dismissed claims against a Catholic diocese by several women who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by a priest, Father David Rooney. The court held that while plaintiffs' fraud claims were not barred by the statute of limitations, the claims stemmed from the diocese's failure to disclose Father Rooney's history of sexual abuse.  Nondisclosure amounts to fraud only if the diocese had a duty to disclose, and plaintiffs did not allege or establish any such duty.  The court rejected plaintiffs' theory that the diocese engaged in an implied affirmative misrepresentation that it was safe for Father Rooney to be around children when the diocese permitted him to serve as a pastor and have unsupervised access to minor children.