Court: Children's Hospital can't be sued for alleged sex abuse by pediatrician in 1960s

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today dismissed a lawsuit against Children's Hospital by a man who claims he was abused by a psychiatrist between 1967 and 1969 because the law at the time granted charitable organizations immunity from any liability.

The legislature abolished "charitable immunity" in 1971, but the court said that claims against institutions had to be considered under the laws in place at the time the alleged offenses took place, rather than under the laws in effect when the lawsuit is filed.

"John Doe No. 4" is one of several men who allege they were molested by Melvin Levine, at the time chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Children's. In 2008, when another one of the men sued Levine, his lawyers denied that Levine had ever inappropriately touched any of the 15,000 children he had seen in 40 years of practice.

Complete ruling.