A District Court jury will hear a case against the Boy Scouts of America brought by women who were raped by a Kalispell scout leader in 1974 and 1975.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a jury should decide whether or not the statute of limitations had expired for the victims of abuse to file a civil lawsuit.

The Boy Scouts organization had asked that the court take rare action and overrule Cascade County District Court Judge James P. Reynolds, who also determined that the case should be presented to a jury.

“The question on which we are asked to interject ourselves—whether the statute of limitations has run out on plaintiffs’ claims—is not a purely legal question,” the court ruled in a unanimous decision.

William Leininger Jr. was sent to prison after he was convicted in 1976 of six rapes of young female Explorer Scouts.

He committed another sexual assault in 1982 and eventually died in prison in 2002 at age 80.

A lawsuit seeking damages for the rapes was filed in 2011 by five of the victims who now are in their 50s. The lawsuit came after an Oregon court ordered the release of the Boy Scout “Perversion Files,” which detailed records kept by the organization of leaders who abused children.

The lawsuit involving Leininger accuses the Boy Scouts organization of fraud.

“This is a big win for these women,” the victims’ attorney Gilion Dumas said. “They look forward to presenting their case to a jury. It will be the first time in the country that a jury hears a fraud claim against the Boy Scouts of America. These women are suing the BSA for fraud as well as negligence, based on evidence that the BSA knew pedophiles targeted scouting, hid that danger from children and their parents, and instead marketed scouting as a safe and fun activity led by trustworthy adults.”

The Boy Scouts of America had claimed in its request to the Montana high court that the women knew that the sexual abuse had harmed them because they suffered eating disorders and identified themselves as rape victims years before the lawsuit was filed.

“They do not claim repressed memory or some new factual revelation,” Boy Scouts attorney Randy Cox wrote to the high court. “They have known of the events since they occurred. While the lawsuit is recent, the undisputed evidence makes clear that each plaintiff has recognized the existence and cause of her damages for decades.”

State law requires victims of sex abuse to file claims within three years of recognizing that they were harmed by abuse.

“Leininger’s crimes were despicable acts that betrayed the trust of the victims and town,” the Boy Scouts’ motion to the Montana Supreme Court read. “Defendants do not question the magnitude of the offenses, nor the courage it took plaintiffs to report Leininger’s violations. Plaintiffs’ lawsuit, however, does not target Leininger. Instead, plaintiffs sued the Boy Scouts 40 years after the secret crimes, seeking to hold the national organization and local council responsible for hidden acts. As a matter of law, those claims are barred by the statute of limitations specific to childhood sexual abuse.”

Dumas and the court disagreed.

“The court recognized that Montana’s extended statute of limitations for claims for child sex abuse is not based on when victims know they are abused, but when they ‘draw a causal connection between the abuse they sustained as children and their emotional and psychological difficulties that manifested as adults,’” Dumas said.

The Supreme Court’s ruling means that attorneys will meet for a scheduling conference and move forward in the case in Cascade County District Court.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.