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Judge to hear arguments in disputed abuse settlement
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press, 07/31/02
BOSTON -- Cardinal Bernard Law, who four months ago hailed a financial settlement with clergy sex abuse victims as "an important step in reaching closure," is now being called to court to testify about the collapsed deal. Attorneys for alleged victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan and for the archdiocese were scheduled to go to court Thursday morning to ask a judge to decide if the settlement, worth up to $30 million, is binding. Law will be called to the witness stand on Friday in the Suffolk Superior Court trial, plaintiffs' attorney Mitchell Garabedian said. The cardinal never authorized its lawyers to create a binding deal, which the archdiocese eventually backed out of because it said it could not afford it, attorneys for the archdiocese claim in court filings. "There will be undisputed testimony at trial that no bishop ever signed the settlement agreement, or authorized their attorneys to bind them to it," church lawyers J. Owen Todd and Wilson D. Rogers Jr. wrote in a filing outlining their case. Attorneys for the 86 alleged victims say the archdiocese has committed a "fraud on the court." Garabedian said Law and other church leaders represented to the court and the public that the deal was final. Garabedian, in a filing outlining his case, said the archdiocese's rationale for backing out of the settlement -- that only three of the 17 defendants signed the settlement -- is irrelevant. "The purpose of having all the parties sign the agreement was to create a polished memorandum of an already binding agreement," he wrote. Garabedian plans to use Law's public statements to show Judge Constance Sweeney that the archdiocese endorsed the settlement. Garabedian's court filings include Law's March 12 press statement. In it, Law said: "This settlement is an important step in reaching closure for those victims who have long endured the damage done to them by John Geoghan." Even if Sweeney finds that the settlement is binding, it should not be enforced because the archdiocese never put money into an escrow account for victims, church lawyers argued. Garabedian also plans to argue for "judicial estoppel," which essentially says a court must enforce a settlement if it takes other actions under the impression that an agreement was final. The court granted a stay of discovery when the agreement was announced in March. The archdiocese's Finance Council voted against the settlement later in March, marking the first time it ever went against Law's recommendations. Law argued in a deposition that the settlement should have been referred to as a "proposed settlement" because it had not been finalized. |
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