Saturday, January 13, 2007

Supreme Court will review 'Doe v. Archdiocese'

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has granted a petition for review of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision in John Doe v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee. On review, it will consider two issues.
Are the plaintiffs' claims for affirmative misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment and negligent supervision by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee independent causes of action that should not be dismissed under the statute of limitations due to the "discovery rule," or are the actions barred by this court's decisions in Pritzlaff v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee, 194 Wis. 2d 302, 533 N.W2d 780 (1995), and John BBB Doe v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee, 211 Wis. 2d 312, 565 N.W2d 94 (1997)?

If the plaintiffs' mispresentation and negligent supervision claims are not barred by the statute of limitations, are they barred by the Establishment or Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment?

If the court reverses and cases like this can proceed, then I expect our Archdiocese will file for bankruptcy.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:13 PM

    Interesting you think they'd file for bankruptcy. Would they then have to candidly reveal all their financial records and assets... to a degree of transparency that's not apparent from the 'financial statement'(ahem)that accompanies the Stewardship letter recieved today?

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  2. While the bankruptcy filings would be more detailed, I don't recall seeing any reports of surprising financial disclosures in other diocesan bankruptcies. (The note on page 9 gives a link to the full report, but I couldn't get it to work.)

    I notice the Archdiocese paid millions more for "professional services" than it did for "payroll and fringe benefits". Also, the $15 million for "professional services" was about equal to its operating loss for the year. That loss was on operating revenues of $27 million.

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