Vermont Federal Court Has General Jurisdiction Over New York Diocese In Abuse Case

In Shovah v. Mercure, (D VT, Sept. 3, 2013), a Vermont federal district court held that the Diocese of Albany, New York has sufficient contacts with Vermont, primarily through priests who have conducted worship services there, to create general jurisdiction over the diocese in Vermont.  The holding comes in a suit in which plaintiff, a victim of priest sexual abuse, alleges that the Diocese breached its fiduciary duty to by permitting the alleged abuser, former priest Gary Mercure, to hold himself out as a Catholic Priest and that it negligently supervised Mercure.