Boy Scouts of America was not held liable to a Scout leader's sex abuse allegations in Kansas City, Missouri's highest court ruled on Tuesday. The judge said state law allows for lawsuits only against perpetrators of abuse, not a third party or organization.
Randall Rhodes, the representing lawyer of the victim who sued, said it is hard to hold organizations accountable for abuse committed by their employees. Yahoo News reported, the victim, now a 35 year old man, named only as John Doe in court records, is making the Boy Scouts association of America responsible for the alleged Scout leader's sexual abused to him.
The man claims a scoutmaster sexually abused and battered him starting when he was about 12 years old in 1992 and that the abuse continued until 1997. Missouri court judges agreed to Gerard Noce, defense lawyer of the Boy scouts, who argued such abuse can only be committed by people, Salon reported.
"A corporation or association cannot itself commit the criminal acts that constitute childhood sexual abuse. It must act through its agents," the ruling stated. The victim's lawyer also had insisted on last year's court hearing that Doe met the deadline for the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, which was extended by lawmakers in 2004, according to Fox2 Now.
However, the organization's attorney still argued that the Missouri Supreme Court should follow the previous law. Noce said such lawsuits were barred after a victim turned 23 or three years after discovering injury caused by abuse. In Tuesday's unanimous opinion, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the statutes of limitations for negligence and battery applied in the case and had expired.
The judge went on to add that such action also would appear contrary to a constitutional provision barring retroactive laws. The case against the scoutmaster is pending.
