Hutchison ex rel. Hutchison v. Luddy

• Decision Date: 25 October 2000
• Citation: 763 A.2d 826
• Parties: Michael S. HUTCHISON, Jr., by Mary J. HUTCHISON, Parent and Natural Guardian v. Father Francis LUDDY, St. Therese's Catholic Church, Bishop James Hogan and Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Appeal of Catholic Church, Bishop James Hogan and Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

763 A.2d 826

Michael S. HUTCHISON, Jr., by Mary J. HUTCHISON, Parent and Natural Guardian v. Father Francis LUDDY, St. Therese's Catholic Church, Bishop James Hogan and Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Appeal of Catholic Church, Bishop James Hogan and Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued January 9, 1996.

Filed October 25, 2000.

Reargument Denied January 4, 2001.

Carl A. Eck, Pittsburgh, for appellants.

Richard M. Serbin, Altoona, for Michael S. Hutchison, Jr., appellee.

BEFORE: TAMILIA, FORD ELLIOTT, AND BROSKY, JJ.

BROSKY, J.

¶ 1 This appeal is before us on remand from the Supreme Court with instructions to dispose of all issues not previously ruled upon. The heart of the controversy is the alleged sexual molestation of Appellee Michael Hutchison, a minor male with limited mental competency, by Father Francis Luddy, a Catholic priest. Hutchison, by his mother, Mary J. Hutchison, brought a civil action in June of 1987 to recover damages for the harm allegedly inflicted on him by Luddy. The matter involves an allegation that Luddy's conduct on the two occasions in question was part of a pattern of activity on his part against Hutchison and other minor males, using his status. The evidence showed that Luddy had first molested Hutchison when the latter was ten or eleven years old, and that these molestations continued on a frequent basis until Hutchison's family moved to Ohio in August of 1982. Approximately six months later, in early 1983, Hutchison, now age fifteen, returned to Altoona to meet Luddy in a motel room, performed sexual acts, and received $200 from Luddy. Again, in 1984, the same scenario occurred when Hutchison was seventeen.

¶ 2 The action was brought against not only Luddy but also parties involved in church hierarchy: St. Therese's Catholic Church (St. Therese's), Bishop James Hogan (Bishop Hogan), and the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown (Diocese), collectively described as the church defendants or the Diocesan Parties. There are two causes of action that form the basis for the suit. The first is, under section 317 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965), that the church organization negligently hired, supervised, and retained Luddy. The second is that pedophilic behavior of priests was deliberately ignored and/or not remediated by the church organization. ¶ 3 Although the Amended Complaint alleged that Luddy had molested Hutchison over a period of at least six years, Luddy denied having had sexual contact with Hutchison at any time. The church parties raised two defenses in their New Matter. Firstly, they asserted the negligence on the part of Hutchison to care for his own safety should be compared with any negligence on the part of the church parties and should act as a partial or total bar to recovery. Secondly, they asserted the consent on the part of Hutchison to the two actionable molestations allegedly performed on him by Luddy was a total bar to recovery, since Hutchison was over the age of 15 at the time of the alleged incidents.¹

¶ 4 After discovery, the church parties filed motions for summary judgment and partial summary judgment. They raised the failure of Hutchison to state a cause of action with regard to the allegation that the church parties engaged in a custom or practice of failing to investigate, report or sufficiently handle complaints of sexual molestation. They also sought to exclude from trial any reference to a duty to report allegations of sexual abuse to any civil authority. The church parties also sought a bifurcation, in the sense that they wanted an initial, separate trial to be held to determine whether Luddy had in fact molested Hutchison within the applicable limitations period.

¶ 5 The trial court denied these requests and ruled that evidence of otherwise time-barred acts of molestation by Luddy on Hutchison would be admissible at trial. Moreover, the church parties, through motions in limine, sought to preclude evidence of molestation committed by other priests of the Diocese and any evidence of other alleged acts of molestation of other minor males by Luddy. The trial judge denied the motions.

¶ 6 The matter went to an eleven-week jury trial that commenced on January 31, 1994. Hutchison contended that he suffered an emotional stress disorder as the result of the long-term sexual abuse by Luddy, leading him to a life of involvement with crime, drugs, and homosexual prostitution. The defense asserted that Hutchison suffered from an attention deficit disorder unrelated to any alleged molestation and that he was a victim of a dysfunctional family.

¶ 7 The trial judge refused to allow the defense of comparative negligence and refused to instruct the jury regarding the doctrine of consensual agreement as set forth in the church parties' proposed jury instructions. The judge used special interrogatories that provided for the jury to find the church parties liable for either compensatory or punitive damages, or for both types of damages under either the section 317 theory or the pattern or practice theory, or under both theories. With regard to the award of compensatory damages, the special interrogatory-form verdict slip provided each type of compensatory damage for the jury to fill in. The jury was instructed to confine its consideration with regard to Luddy's molestation of Hutchison to incidents of molestation occurring between June 29, 1982 and December of 1984.

¶ 8 The jury returned its verdict on April 21, 1994. Appellees prevailed against Luddy, St. Therese's, Bishop Hogan, and the Diocese. As to compensatory damages, the jury assigned the following percentages of liability: 36 percent to Luddy, 53 percent to Bishop Hogan and/or the Diocese, and 11 percent to St. Therese's, and assessed a total of $519,000. Regarding punitive damages, the jury found that the conduct of Luddy, St. Therese's, Bishop Hogan, and/or the Diocese was outrageous, in that they acted with reckless indifference to Hutchison's interest. The jury awarded $50,000 in punitive damages against Luddy and $1,000,000 in punitive damages to Hutchison against St. Therese's, Bishop Hogan, and/or the Diocese.

¶ 9 Luddy pursued his own post-trial relief and filed his own appeal with this Court at Docket No. 1452 PGH 94, which was eventually dismissed. The church parties sought post-trial relief, which was denied on June 28, 1994. This order also awarded delay damages to Appellees in the amount of $311,564.11. Judgment was entered on June 30, 1994. On July 25, 1994, the trial court entered an order to clarify its June 28, 1994 order. This order also explained that joint and several liability for punitive damages was not imposed, and that the punitive damages were to be assessed in the amount of $1,000,000 against the church parties and $50,000 against Luddy.

¶ 10 The church parties then filed the instant appeal with this Court on July 29, 1994, raising ten issues. The issues raised in the appeal are as follows.

I. Whether the court erred in allowing [Appellee] to proceed through discovery and trial under the Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 317 (1965), for the negligent hiring, retaining, and supervision of Father Luddy, when the record showed that the molestations occurred in a motel off the premises of the Diocese and there was no proof that Father Luddy was privileged to enter the motel solely because he was employed as a priest and when allowing any such action to go forward would result in excessive entanglement of the courts in the religious affairs of the Diocesan parties?

II. Whether [t]he court erred in allowing [Appellee] to proceed to verdict on the theory that the Diocesan Parties were liable because they had a pattern, practice or custom of ignoring a[sic] failing to investigate and remediate allegations of molestation when no such theory had ever been adopted in Pennsylvania and when [Appellee] failed to prove the existence of any pattern, practice, policy or custom and that if such did exist that it was the animus of Father Luddy's pedophilic behavior?

III. Whether there was sufficient evidence that St. Therese's Catholic Church knew of Father Luddy's pedophilic propensity so as to allow a claim for failing to warn potential victims years after they had moved to another state?

IV. Whether evidence of the failure of the Diocesan Parties to report incidents of child molestation by priests to the police or other civil authorities was admissible[?]

V. Whether the court erred in allowing evidence of other sexual misconduct involving other priests and other victims, Father Luddy and other victims[,] and Father Luddy and the plaintiff?

VI. Whether comparative negligence is a proper defense to a claim against employers or former employers of a pedophilic priest when the plaintiff knew of the priest's pedophilic tendencies as a result of numerous prior instances of his own molestation?

VII. Whether the court's instructions and jury interrogatory on causation were sufficient to enable the jury to decide if the plaintiff consented to the sex acts by engaging in them to obtain money?

VIII. Whether the court erred in submitting a verdict form which requested the jury to itemize the elements of the plaintiff's damages by assigning amounts to each element of the claim?

IX. Whether the evidence was sufficient to warrant an award of punitive damages when the evidence showed nothing more than gross negligence on the part of the Diocesan Parties?

X. Whether the court erred in allowing the jury to decide if punitive damages should be imposed upon St. Therese's Catholic Church if it should have known of Father Luddy's pedophilic tendencies?

Appellant's Brief at 2-3.

¶ 11 A panel of this Court heard argument on January 9, 1996. This author wrote an Opinion that was filed on September 4, 1996, that looked only at the church parties' first issue. Because of the disposition of that issue, which was a vacation of the judgment against all three of the church...