A Rhode Island judge is allowing a lawsuit against the disgraced Roman Catholic order the Legionaries of Christ. This lawsuit is seeking millions of dollars of compensation and it is brought by Americans United for Life, the national anti-abortion group.
Americans United for Life declares that the Legionaries of Christ interfered with an inheritance the group should have got from a wealthy widow. It states the Legionaries conspired to get Gabrielle Mee to cut the group out of her will, and give her entire $60 million fortune to the Legionaries.
Up to $6 million is at stake according to Bernard Jackvony, a lawyer for Americans United for Life.
The Legionaires had planned all since long ago
Americans United for Life declared that Gabrielle Mee had bequeathed it 10 percent of her estate in a 1991 will, but later she changed her will and decided to leave everything to the Legionaries. Judge Michael Silverstein rejected the Legionarie's request to dismiss the lawsuit, but he agreed to dismiss two claims: undue influence and fraud.
A previous lawsuit, brought by the same lawyer on behalf of Mee's niece, alleged that Mee was defrauded by the order.
Jackvony said the Legionaries will now have to prepare for trial and to face the "sunshine" of a Rhode Island courtroom.
This is not the only legal battle the Legionaires have to face
It is one of the legal battles the Legionaries are facing in the United States, which stem from a sexual scandal involving the founder of the order, the Rev. Marcial Maciel and other church officials. An investigation stated that Maciel sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children.
Two of Marcial Maciel's sons have sued the Legionaries because the order and the Vatican knew that Maciel was a sexual predator, pathological liar and drug addict.
