Court Refuses To Dismiss Claims Against Diocese Over Abusive Priest

In Jane Doe #2 v. Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp., 2013 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1516 (CT Super., July 8, 2013), a Connecticut trial court refused to strike claims against a Catholic diocese for failure to report, supervise and remove a priest charged with child abuse, including claims for breach of fiduciary duty. The diocese argued that the the claims excessively burden its exercise of religion. The court responded in part:

Although the United States Supreme Court's decision in Hosanna-Tabor may indeed bar some of the allegations found in the complaint, such as the defendants' allegedly wrongful failure to remove Father Shea from the priesthood, Hosanna-Tabor does not preclude all of the specifications of negligence and reckless conduct found in counts one through six. Specifically, the allegations of failure to warn and negligent supervision are not clearly precluded by Hosanna-Tabor. Accordingly, the court cannot strike these counts on the basis of the first amendment.