Record $2.6M-award in cleric abuse case
Congregation of St. Basil considering an appeal of historic judgment
A Toronto jury has awarded a man sexually molested 50 years ago by a predatory priest who taught and coached boys across Ontario for decades $2.6 million in damages, a Canadian record for abuse by a cleric.
The Ontario Superior Court judgment for Rod MacLeod, now 68, includes $500,000 in punitive damages against the Congregation of St. Basil, a Toronto-based Roman Catholic religious order, for the actions of deceased priest William Hodgson “Hod” Marshall when MacLeod was a high school student in Sudbury.
In allotting punitive compensation, the four-woman, twoman jury provided a written list of the particulars they considered when determining whether punitive damages were warranted and how much to award MacLeod.
The jurors wrote the Basilians had concealed Marshall’s behaviour to avoid “scandal,” were “grossly negligent” and “put children in harm’s way” on the list delivered with their verdict.
Marshall taught in Windsor, Toronto, Sudbury and Saskatoon.
Justice Arthur Gans’ court heard during the three-week trial that Marshall admitted to a Basilian superior in 1996 that he’d sexually abused two or three high school boys every year during a 29-year teaching period.
Fifteen years later, Marshall was convicted of indecently assaulting 17 minors and given a two-year sentence.
MacLeod, a former Canadian army captain, was a student in the 1960s at Sudbury’s all-boys St. Charles High School, then run by the Basilians. MacLeod testified Marshall abused him over four years at school, beginning when MacLeod was 13. About 50 instances of abuse occurred in empty classrooms, the priest’s residence near the school and away from the school grounds, the jury heard.
MacLeod said he was pleased a benchmark for punitive damages for abuse by a member of the clergy was set.
“My whole focus was to establish punitives as a method to forestall any more sex abuse, (and) setting this precedent I think will do that,” MacLeod, a registered massage therapist working in Toronto, said after Thursday’s verdict.
“I just knew, in my heart, that if citizens, just ordinary people, heard what they were doing, who could condone that?” continued MacLeod, referring to jury members.
Rev. David Katulski, the Basil- ians’ vicar-general, said in a statement the order “extends its congratulations to Mr. MacLeod on the judgment he received” and apologized “sincerely and unreservedly for the inappropriate conduct of Hod Marshall.”
“This should never have happened and we are truly sorry. It is the hope and prayer of the Basilian Fathers that all of Fr. Marshall’s victims may experience healing from the real brokenness you have suffered and that you may experience new life for the future.”
Katulski also stated the order “does not agree with each of the awards of damages which make up the judgment and is considering its rights of appeal.” The jury awards were: $350,000 in general damages; $75,000 in aggravated damages; $1,588,781 in lump sum income loss; $56,400 for special damages, and $500,000 in punitive damages, which add up to $2,570,181.
MacLeod’s lawyer, Rob Talach, said the punitive award indicated the jury’s “condemnation of the church’s conduct.”
“The church just can’t pay for spilled milk.”