Greater Nashua
New Hampshire court rules in clergy abuse case that 2020 law cannot be applied retroactively
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire’s 2020 law abolishing deadlines for lawsuits alleging sexual assault cannot be applied retroactively, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling came in the case of Randy Ball, who sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester in 2023 alleging he was raped by a priest at a summer camp in the 1970s. Under the law at the time of the alleged assaults, Ball had only until he turned 20 in 1986 to sue, but he argued his lawsuit was permissible under a 2020 amendment that removed the statute of limitations. The amendment itself did not specify whether it could be applied retroactively, but the court ruled that doing so would violate the state Constitution, which gives private parties a vested right to a statute of limitations defense. In upholding the dismissal of Ball’s lawsuit, justices said they were “acutely aware that victims of ...
