Washington Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Novel Claim in Sex Abuse Case

On April 26, 2010, the Court of Appeals of the State of Washington handed Patterson Buchanan a victory by upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit against the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle that had attempted to establish a new type of legal claim. The plaintiff claimed she was currently unable to have a healthy relationship with father as a result of sexual abuse he had suffered while attending Catholic school in the 1960s and 1970s. The King County Superior Court granted the Archdiocese's motion for summary judgment, agreeing with Patterson Buchanan's attorneys that Washington law does not recognize a claim for loss of consortium by an adult child who was not even born at the time of injury to the parent.

On appeal, the plaintiff's attorney tried to argue that the new type of claim is supported under Washington law by a combination of (1) the state's permissive statute of limitations for bringing a child sex abuse lawsuit; (2) court precedent giving children an independent cause of action for loss of parental consortium when a parent is injured through the negligence of others; and (3) court precedent allowing a spouse's claim for loss of consortium when the injury to the other spouse occurred prior to the marriage. Patterson Buchanan's attorneys countered in their brief that none of the legal authority cited by the plaintiff could support the new claim, which has not been recognized by the courts in Washington or, apparently, in any other state. The Court of Appeals agreed, finding that the plaintiff's arguments "are more properly directed to the legislature or our Supreme Court."

The case is Engler v. Corporation of the Archbishop of Seattle.