In a unanimous decision setting a new legal standard for finding reckless infliction of emotional distress, the Tennessee Supreme Court has cleared the way for a $68 million child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to go forward.
“We hold that reckless infliction of emotional distress need not be based upon conduct that was directed at a specific person or that occurred in the presence of the plaintiff,” Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, wrote in the legal precedent-setting opinion filed Tuesday.
The decision, which reverses Court of Appeals and trial court decisions, involves consolidated lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese by two boys who were sexually abused by a former priest with a long history of child molestation. The mother of one abuse victim also is a plaintiff.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in John Doe 1 ex rel. Jane Doe 1, et al. v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, et al., the lower courts had held that “to be actionable under the tort of outrageous conduct, a defendant’s reckless or intentional conduct must have been directed at a particular plaintiff or the plaintiff must have had a close relationship to the individual at whom the conduct was directed."
In its decision, the Supreme Court sent the case involving John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 back to the trial court for further proceedings. Justices also directed the trial court to allow the plaintiffs to obtain additional information to support their case seeking damages for emotional distress resulting from abuse by former priest Edward McKeown.
McKeown, who is serving a prison sentence for repeatedly abusing a large number of victims, was no longer employed by the Diocese at the time he began molesting the two boys who are plaintiffs. The plaintiffs argued that even though the Diocese did not direct its conduct specifically at the plaintiffs, it should be held liable because church officials had direct knowledge of numerous previous instances of abuse, had been warned that McKeown was likely to continue to abuse children, but recklessly failed to prevent him from molesting other boys in the community. The plaintiffs allege that the Diocese engaged in a cover-up which included paying McKeown over $50,000 to remain quiet about child abuse after he was relieved of his duties with the Diocese.
The court’s decision is the first in the nation to hold that reckless infliction of emotional distress does not have to be based on conduct that was directed at a specific person or that took place in the presence of the plaintiff.
The trial court had dismissed the claims of the plaintiffs, meaning that their lawsuit could no longer proceed. In affirming the trial court's decision granting summary judgment for the Diocese, the Court of Appeals held that the plaintiffs' claim for reckless infliction of emotional distress must be based upon misconduct by the Diocese which had been directed specifically at the plaintiffs.
McKeown became a priest in 1970, and for 19 years he frequently served the Diocese in positions that brought him into contact with youth. In 1973, a boy attending a Catholic school informed a priest that McKeown had given him alcohol and forcibly molested him. Thirteen years later, after the victim’s parent told the bishop of the Diocese about the incident, the church official confronted McKeown, who admitted to the abuse.
In 1986, McKeown spent 10 days in Maryland undergoing a psychological and medical evaluation and was diagnosed with pedophilia and ephebophilia, both sexual disorders.
“Records of the evaluation indicate that McKeown admitted that he ‘had sexual contact with approximately 30 boys over the past 14 years’ and estimated that he ‘had sexual contact with minors on the average of once or twice a month for the past 14 years,’” Drowota wrote in the court’s opinion. “The typical age of his victims was stated to be 12 to 13 years old,” but he had older victims as well.
A report sent to a church official said McKeown should not be “in the presence of teenagers unless another responsible adult is with him.” After receiving the evaluation of McKeown, the Diocese provided him with in-patient treatment at a facility in Connecticut in 1986-87. Again, the Diocese was cautioned that McKeown should not be given responsibilities that “would place him in frequent or ongoing contact with adolescents.”
“There is no cure for Father McKeown’s condition and so it is necessary that there be a continual program of therapy and monitoring to help him maintain the same degree of control that he has now into the future,” a treating doctor wrote to a Diocese official.
After returning to Nashville, McKeown resumed working for the Diocese, including hearing children’s confessions and participating in youth activities. McKeown was relieved of his duties in 1989 after officials learned that he had openly presented a condom to a minor boy at a Christmas party. He moved to a mobile home community and received monthly payments from the Diocese.
After his employment duties with the Diocese were discontinued, McKeown still continued to participate in youth and other activities in his parish where he was often in the company of adolescent boys.
“On a regular basis from 1990 until at least 1996, McKeown sexually molested numerous Diocesan boys . . .,” Drowota wrote.
He met plaintiff John Doe 2 in 1991 at the mobile home community where they both lived. John Doe 2 was not Roman Catholic and did not attend church or school within the Diocese. McKeown sexually abused the boy from 1994 until 1995 when the victim’s mother discovered the abuse and reported it to the police. No police investigation was conducted at that time.
In 1995, McKeown met John Doe 1, who also lived in the mobile home community, and began molesting him the same year. Although John Doe 1 also was not Roman Catholic and did not meet McKeown through the Diocese, the boy alleges that he frequently accompanied McKeown to watch athletic contests at a Diocesan school and occasionally attended church with McKeown.
The boy revealed the sexual abuse to a friend and to his mother in 1999. The mother confronted McKeown, “who promptly confessed not only to the sexual abuse of John Doe 1, but also to a litany of abuse of many other boys over many years,” Drowota wrote. The abuse was reported to police, and McKeown was prosecuted, convicted and is in now in prison.