Doe v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee
| Docket: 12-3689 | Opinion Date: February 25, 2014 |
| Judge: Sykes | |
| Areas of Law: Bankruptcy, Injury Law | |
The claimant alleges that Father Hanser, a former pastor at a Catholic Parish in Brookfield,Wisconsin, sexually abused him in the late 1970s when he was seven years old. In 2007 the claimant participated in a voluntary mediation program conducted by the Archdiocese to address claims of sexual abuse by priests. The mediation produced a settlement. The Archdiocese paid the claimant $100,000, and he released the Archdiocese from all claims relating to abuse by Father Hanser. When the Archdiocese filed its Chapter 11 petition four years later, the claimant submitted a claim based on the same allegations of abuse by Father Hanser, claiming that an Archdiocesan representative had fraudulently induced him to settle by giving him inaccurate information about when the Archdiocese first received reports of abuse by Father Hanser. The bankruptcy judge refused to set the agreement aside because the claimant had not shown that but for the alleged misrepresentations, he would not have accepted the settlement. The district court and Seventh Circuit affirmed. The claimant failed to show that the alleged misrepresentations were a substantial factor in his decision to accept the settlement and never made an offer of proof explaining what an expanded record would show.
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This is just another example of an attempted continuation of the shakedown that has saddled the Catholic Church. I am a product of Catholic Education, in grammar, high school and College and never witnessed or even heard of anything even apprpoaching the abuses that have been alleged so many times.
Frankly, this whole mess, naton wide, STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN! The "Plaintiffs" all know that the Church (allegedly) has a lot of money, so their 'abuse' allegations can be used to shake down the clergy, who often do not have the will, or the funds, to fight and simply give in and pays these "claims" which more often than not amount to little more than EXTORTION.
But the Catholic Chuch is seen as an easy target and once they have bankrupted one diocese, they simply look to the national or even Rome to make up the difference. The blue-suited gangsters aiding these 'claims' are little more than legalized con men.
