Local attorney argues that he should be allowed to depose the Pope
In the ongoing legal drama of (formerly) local attorney, William McMurray’s, attempt to take the recent Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals straight to the top (ie. to the Pope and the Vatican), McMurray has now asked the judge in a case filed in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Louisville to force the Pope himself, Benedict XVI to appear for his deposition. The Vatican, for its part, is not eager to see the Vicar of Christ sitting in Mr. McMurray’s conference room, under oath and answering questions, and has asked the judge in that case to not allow the deposition to go forward. Lawyers for the Vatican argue that there is no proven link between any local sex abuse scandal in Louisville, Kentucky and Church officials in Rome. While parties are usually given fairly wide latitude in conducting discovery (including taking depositions) in cases (really anything that might tend to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence at trial is fair game), my guess is that McMurray may have to do an extra-special good job in convincing the Court on this one. Aside from the Vatican’s arguments above about relevance and relatedness of anything the Pope might have to add to the suit, he is also considered to be a head-of-state by international law. While I am admittedly no scholar on international law, I bet that deposing the president of another country is probably tougher to do that getting Jim Smith under oath in your conference room. McMurray seems undeterred though and if the thinks he has something here, then more power to him. I just hope he has contingency plans for the sweet ever-after.
