North Carolina Supreme Court upholds law that allowed 2 more years for child sex abuse suits

North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby addresses the audience at the North Carolina Medal of Valor Ceremony at the Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera, File)

Associated Press

January 31, 2025

By Gary D. Robertson

 

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s highest court upheld on Friday a law that gave adult victims of child sexual abuse two additional years to seek civil damages, rejecting arguments that the temporary window violated constitutional protections for those facing claims that otherwise could no longer be pursued in court.

In a case involving a local school board sued by three former students years after an ex-high school coach was convicted of crimes against team members, the state Supreme Court ruled the General Assembly was able to enact a key provision within the 2019 SAFE Child Act that was also signed by then-Gov. Roy Cooper.

Before the law, victims of sexual abuse before age 18 effectively had until turning 21 to file such civil claims against perpetrators. Now such victims have until they’re age 28. But the issue before the court in the Gaston County case was the provision that gave other child sex abuse victims whose time period to sue ended the ability to file valid lawsuits for damages from January 2020 through December 2021.

Supporters of the provision said it allowed victims to ensure their abusers and institutions that allowed abuse to happen pay for the damage, and that abusers are called out publicly. At least 250 child sex abuse lawsuits were filed in North Carolina under that one-time lookback period, according to a board legal brief.

A divided state Court of Appeals panel in 2023 had already upheld the two-year window as constitutional.

The board’s attorney had argued the lookback period violated the North Carolina Constitution by stripping away fundamental rights protected from retroactive alterations by the legislature. He also said that upholding the litigation window would make it impossible in some cases to mount vigorous defenses given the passage of time and destroyed records.

Writing Friday’s majority opinion, Chief Justice Paul Newby said a review of previous versions of the state constitution showed that a current provision barring “retrospective laws” expressly applies only to retroactive criminal and certain tax laws. And another constitutional provision that can be used to strike down laws that violate a person’s “vested right” does not apply here, he added.

“Our precedents confirm that the General Assembly may retroactively amend the statute of limitations for tort claims,” Newby wrote, referring to civil actions in which someone seeks monetary compensation for harm by another.

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