The lawsuit claims the Boy Scouts failed to disclose to Abner, now 25, his parents - or other scouts and their parents - that scoutmasters were sexually abusing scouts.
“Boy Scouts of America has known that for decades and did not disclose that to scouting families,” lawyer Konrad Kircher said Friday.
Kircher said Flannery’s ruling clears the way for Abner’s lawyers to to begin gathering information through discovery. Kircher predicted the Boy Scouts would then file another motion to dismiss the lawsuit on summary judgment, rather than proceed to trial.
Carolyn Taggart, the lawyer representing the Boy Scouts, could not be reached.
Abner claims he was sexually abused by his scoutmaster, Scott Woodard, more than 300 times over 3 ½ years in the 1990s on scouting trips in Ohio and Indiana — and twice while Abner was on vacation with his family at Kings Island in Warren County. Woodard is now deceased.
Kircher is working with two Oregon attorneys in the 2010 trial against the Boy Scouts that resulted in a $19.5 million verdict.
The Abner lawsuit, filed in February, also claims the Boy Scouts were negligent in failing to advise scouts or families of child sex abuse cases involving scoutmasters from 1985 to 2000.
Taggart sought dismissal on behalf of the Boy Scouts in May, claiming the court lacked jurisdiction, in part because the Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Texas, has no control over Abner’s troop.
“The allegations regarding plaintiff’s scouting trips in Ohio state it was his troop that sanctioned, organized and paid for these outings,” Taggart said in a motion. “As explained, BSA is a separate legal entity from any scout troop and BSA does not operate on a granular level to sanction, organize or pay for individual troop outings.”
Motions for dismissal also claimed the Warren County court lacks jurisdiction because Abner, who now lives in Arizona, never lived in Ohio, and most of the alleged sexual abuse took place in Indiana, where he lived.
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