A 25-year-old legal dispute has finally been settled in favor of Sunrise Children’s Services.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati unanimously affirmed the final dismissal of all the plaintiffs’ claims against Sunrise with prejudice in a ruling Tuesday (Aug. 22). Sunrise Children’s Services is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
The dismissal with prejudice is the functional and legal equivalent of a final judgment on the merits in Sunrise’s favor following a full-blown trial. This was Sunrise’s fifth trip to the appeals court, and it prevailed each time.
‘Not found guilty’
“We are grateful it’s over and grateful we were not found guilty of any wrongdoing,” said Sunrise President Dale Suttles.
The case dates to 1999 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled for Sunrise in a dispute involving former employee Alicia Pedreira.
Pedreira and the ACLU then sued Sunrise and the Commonwealth of Kentucky in federal court in 2000, falsely accusing Sunrise of LGBT and religious discrimination.
The court rejected those discrimination claims immediately, and the dismissal was unanimously affirmed by the appellate court in the early 2000s. Since then, Sunrise has never been found to have unlawfully discriminated against anyone on any basis.
‘Refused to go along’
However, the dispute over Kentucky’s reimbursements to Sunrise for essential childcare services continued for the next two decades.
Kentucky settled the case, but Sunrise refused to go along.
Attorney John Sheller of Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC represented Sunrise throughout the 25-year case.
“What the court of appeals has done here is approve the district court’s decision to dismiss the case because of the settlement between Kentucky and the ACLU, a settlement to which Sunrise was not a party and did not agree,” Sheller said. “The essence of the case was the state’s decision to continue to partner with Sunrise. The judge determined if Kentucky and the ACLU want to settle their disputes, they can do so.”
The dismissal of the case with prejudice means it cannot be refiled, he said.
It is essentially a victory for Sunrise, Sheller said, “because it was not found liable, isn’t found to have done anything wrong and is free to continue doing what it was doing. That’s the long and short of the decision.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mark Maynard and Lawrence Smith and originally published by Kentucky Today, news service of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
