Religious Abuse Liability Institutions - Child Sex: Monaghan v Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Ctr.

• Author: Rogak, Lawrence
• Position: COURTSIDE

* In her complaint, the plaintiff alleged that in 2003, when she was eight years old, the defendant Father Gregory Yacyshyn, a Roman Catholic priest employed and controlled by the defendants Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre (hereinafter the Diocese) and St. Francis of Assisi Parish (hereinafter the parish), "engaged in unpermitted and harmful sexual contact" with her. Shortly after the alleged conduct occurred, the Diocese and the parish reassigned Yacyshyn to another parish. The complaint alleged that the Diocese and the parish knew and/or should have known that Yacyshyn was a danger to children. The complaint further alleged that, following the issuance of a report by the Suffolk County Supreme Court Special Grand Jury in 2003, the Diocese in 2004 "publicly admitted that it knew there were 66 priests who worked in the Diocese who had been accused of sexually molesting minors." The Diocese did not, however, release the names of those 66 priests.

The complaint asserted five causes of action, alleging, among other things, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, criminal nuisance under Penal Law [section] 240.45, public nuisance, and violation of General Business Law [section] 349. The Diocese and the parish (hereinafter together the moving defendants) moved pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(3) and/or (7) to dismiss, inter alia, the first cause of action alleging negligence, the second cause of action alleging criminal nuisance, and the third cause of action alleging public nuisance. In an order entered December 11, 2015, the Supreme Court, among other things, denied those branches of the motion. The moving defendants appeal from so much of the order as denied those branches of their motion which were to dismiss the second and third causes of action, alleging criminal nuisance under Penal Law [section] 240.45 and public nuisance, respectively.

As to those causes of action, the complaint alleged that the Diocese engaged in a long-standing practice of (1) concealing the identities of sexually abusive priests, their sexual assaults, and their pedophilic tendencies; (2) attacking the credibility of victims; (3) protecting sexually abusive priests from criminal prosecution by, among other things, moving them to new parishes without notifying law enforcement or the new parishes of the prior abuse; and (4) falsely holding out those priests as safe to be around children. The complaint alleged that such conduct creates a condition...