Could a new appeal prompt Maine's supreme court to reconsider its decision on decades-old child sex abuse cases?
May 29—Sexual abuse survivors in Maine are hoping a new appeal — and a new justice — will tip the scales in their favor, as the state's highest court considers yet again whether people should be able to sue for decades-old claims.
Earlier this year, 70-year-old George Eaton of Washington County won a lawsuit against Peter Boyce, 81, who Eaton said sexually abused him in the early 1970s. Eaton won by default because Boyce didn't respond to the complaint, according to court records.
Boyce was ordered to pay Eaton $1.1 million on Feb. 26 — a month after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court overturned the 2021 law that made Eaton's lawsuit possible by "reviving" claims previously barred. Maine eliminated its statute of limitations for new claims in 2000, but until the 2021 law change people still couldn't sue for abuse that happened before 1987,
Boyce, who now has an attorney, appealed that decision. Now, the same court that overturned the law will be asked to consider the issue again — but with one new justice confirmed in March and two justices who signed a dissenting opinion, some advocates hope the outcome will be different.
Eaton's lawyer, Michael Bigos, declined to comment on the case. Boyce's attorney, Jed Davis, did not respond to requests Thursday to discuss the appeal and allegations against his client.
Bigos represents more than a dozen people who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland after the 2021 law passed, and whose cases were at the center of the court's decision. He and Timothy Kenlan said in February that their firm was representing at least 100 people whose claims were made possible by the overturned law, although not everyone had filed a complaint in court.
The lawyers asked the high court a couple of weeks after the ruling to reconsider. Bigos recently told lawmakers that request was summarily denied.
He told the Legislature's Judiciary Committee that he hopes this appeal will end differently. He cited the court's new composition and the arguments made by the dissenting justices, who "raised issues that we believe are unsolved."
He said the court's majority opinion overlooked Mainers' rights to substantive due process under the state constitution, instead favoring principles dating to the 1600s "as a rationale for the majority to declare this unconstitutional."
He was testifying on LD 1978, which would allow people to sue governmental entities whose employees sexually abused them as children. (Such employers, including public schools and law enforcement agencies, are immune from most lawsuits. There is no exception for child sexual abuse.)
Rep. Ellie Sato, D-Gorham, noticed that the bill would eliminate a statute of limitation for those claims even after the supreme court's ruling in January.
"How is this language different from that language, to make sure that the Law Court doesn't strike it down again?" Sato asked.
Bigos said he believes the Legislature still has the right to pass laws that serve their constituents.
"It is this practitioner's belief, and many others,' that the Maine judiciary exceeded its authority by impinging on the legislative authority, by declaring that (2021 law) unconstitutional," Bigos said.
DEFAULT JUDGMENT
Bigos and Davis have until later this summer to file briefs with the court outlining their arguments.
In his civil complaint, Eaton said Boyce abused him around July 1970, when Eaton was 15 years old.
He said Boyce had hired him to do odd jobs around his workplace at Johnson Bay Marine, according to the complaint. Over the following year, Eaton said he was abused several times in Boyce's home, workplace and on a trip to New York, often after being given alcohol.
Eaton said he cut contact with Boyce in 1971 and told his parents what had happened. Now, more than 50 years later, Eaton said he still struggles with the trauma, the shame and betrayal.
In awarding damages to Eaton, Superior Court Justice Harold L. Stewart quoted a psychological expert who testified on Eaton's behalf during a hearing Feb. 5, who said Eaton has difficulty trusting others and still experiences a constant "fear of the world." The expert said it's likely Eaton's medical costs for therapy and other treatment will exceed $100,000 in the next 15 years.
Stewart wrote on Feb. 26 that he was aware of the high court's decision, but that it's the defendant's responsibility to raise the issue of a statute of limitations. This defendant never responded to the complaint against him.
"The incident in this case occurred in 1970," Stewart wrote. "Plaintiff has lived with the effects and trauma of the sexual abuse committed by Defendant for 55 years."
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