OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) A high-stakes battle over what the Catholic Church owes victims of sexual abuse in Northern California begins this week as lawyers debate a controversial state law that calculates church liability.
Pretrial hearings in the church abuse cases resume Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland when the Judge Ronald Sabraw hears the case of Rev. Arthur Ribeiro, who is accused of molesting Catholic school boys at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord in the early 1960s. He died four years ago.
Ribeiro's case is being used as a test case for a state law adopted two years ago that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations and allowed adult victims to seek damages for sexual abuse that occurred decades ago.
About 900 lawsuits were filed last year under the provisions of the new law. They have been consolidated into three batches of litigation, including more than 150 Northern California lawsuits collectively known as Clergy III. Clergy I and Clergy II include hundreds of similar claims in Los Angeles and San Diego.
At issue in the Clergy III proceedings is not what Ribeiro is accused of doing, but rather whether church leaders were negligent in preventing the abuse. Judge Sabraw's decision on whether to set a trial date could offer insight into how he'll rule on other Clergy III cases.
None of these lawsuits may ever reach a jury, but court rulings over the next few weeks could decide whether Catholic dioceses will pay millions of dollars to settle these claims out of court.
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