AP β 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 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. 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 through December 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 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 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. The coach, Gary Scott Goins, was convicted of 17 sex-related crimes in and sentenced to at least 34 years in prison. The former student-athletes sued the Gaston County Board of Education and Goins in , alleging he sexually assaulted them on multiple occasions.
Goins was later dismissed as a defendant in the current lawsuit, according to court documents. Lawyers for the state help defend the law in court. Attorney General Jeff Jackson and his predecessor β now Gov. Josh Stein β praised Friday's ruling in a news release. Since , 30 states and the District of Columbia revived previously expired child sex abuse claims with limited or permanent expansions of claim periods, according to CHILD USA, a think tank advocating for children.
