As some may know as reported by JWSurvey in October 2014 that a lawsuit against Watchtower was initiated in Vermont. March 30, 2017 saw a resolution to this case with a summary judgment being filled in Watchtower favor.
Lewis V Watchtower
by Richard Oliver 18 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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Ruby456
Is this case to do with Facebook details being made available for scrutiny?
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Crazyguy
More details please.
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Richard Oliver
A portion of the case did involve a dispute about what portion of Lewis' facebook account could be turned over to the defense. The court ruled that the plaintiff did not turn over all relevant information from social media accounts to the defense and the court gave further instructions to the plaintiff to turn over all relevant information.
This case was previously dismissed in part and intact in part, but now it is fully dismissed in favor of Watchtower. Basically, the court ruled Watchtower did not act negligently because the abuse did not take place during official church activities and that they were not the causation of the abuse. They ruled that because True's daughter would bring Lewis' and her sister to True's property while she was babysitting the girls, that Watchtower and the Congregation did not exacerbate the possibility of True molesting Lewis or her sister. It was also ruled that True was not an agent of Watchtower or the Congregation and that they cannot be held liable for improper hiring of True. The court ruled that she wouldn't be entitled to Punitive Damages because "In Vermont, the culpability required to support an award of punitive damages based on reckless misconduct requires “evidence that the defendant acted, or failed to act, in conscious and deliberate disregard of a known, substantial, and intolerable risk of harm to the plaintiff, with the knowledge that the acts or omissions were substantially certain to result in the threatened harm.”"
True was left off the hook with a separate argument that Lewis civil actions was time-barred by the statute of limitations because the court ruled that a reasonable person should have made a correlation between her mental health symptoms including depression and self-harm with her abuse that True committed on her.
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dubstepped
Did you and Fishy throw a party? Congratulations on your victory Richard. You must be proud.
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Richard Oliver
I never said it was a good thing. I just presented that the case is now over.
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darkspilver
FYI I believe the following are related to this case:
Zalkin Law Firm's Press Release:
http://www.silentlambs.org/documents/ZalkinNRLewisJWcaseVermont093014final1.pdf
Plus
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/285073/vermont-sisters-sue-jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4923468512493568/wt-wants-throw-out-lawsuit-vermont
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2014/09_10/2014_10_01_Goswami_AbuseSuits.htm
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Crazyguy
Thanks Richard!
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never a jw
Richard Oliver: "I never said it was a good thing. I just presented that the case is now over."
Good to know. Now we can rely that you will keep us informed about all child abuse cases related to the Watchtower, ruled in favor or against. Who needs apostates, we got Richard. right?
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Richard Oliver
There is plenty of coverage on this forum and other sites on when a lawsuit is filed and again if a decision goes against Watchtower. But there are more instances where there is a lawsuit that goes in favor of Watchtower that is never mentioned of, on these forums or sites such as JWSurvey. If you are only aware of the cases that Watchtower loses, of course, it seems like they lose every case, but if you are aware of all the cases no matter the outcome then you have a well-rounded set of data to make judgments off of.