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Diocese of Sioux Falls and the religious organizations that ran the school.
• In two rulings, the high court upheld a trial judge's decision to dismiss the lawsuits against the diocese and several groups that ran St. Paul's School in Marty at the time of the alleged abuse more than 35 years ago.
• The Supreme Court said the students waited too long to sue Blue Cloud Abbey of northeastern South Dakota, Pennsylvania-based Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Oblate Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament of Marty, which operated the school and provided priests, nuns and others to work there.
• The justices also said the students cannot sue the diocese because it did not operate or control the school and it was not acting as custodians of the school's students.
• Lawyers for the students and some of the religious organizations did not immedi

ately return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
• Louise Behrendt, a lawyer for Blue Cloud Abbey, said Thursday that the abbey is offering spiritual help to former students of the school.
• "The monks at Blue Cloud Abbey are truly sorry if anyone was harmed and would like to reach out pastorally to anyone who claims to have been harmed at Marty," Behrendt said.
• The legal fight started in 2003, when former students at St. Paul's School and another Indian boarding school in South Dakota filed a federal lawsuit seeking $25 billion in damages from the federal government for the alleged mental, physical and sexual abuse of students at the schools.
• After the federal lawsuit was dismissed, the former students filed lawsuits in state court alleging that the religious organizations that ran the schools failed to protect students and were negligent in hiring, retaining and supervising staff.
• St. Paul's School was founded in 1922 by religious organizations, but ownership and control were transferred to the Yankton Sioux Tribe in 1975.
• At issue in the case was a state law that requires a lawsuit seeking damages for childhood sexual abuse to be filed within three years of the alleged abuse or within three years of the time the victim discovered or should have discovered that an injury was caused by the abuse. The students argued that they should get an extended time to file their lawsuits because they did not discover until much later that their injuries were caused by the alleged abuse.
• However, the Supreme Court said the law giving extra time to file such lawsuits only applies in lawsuits against those who engaged in intentional conduct or actually committed the abuse. The former students' lawsuits do not claim any intentional conduct by the religious organizations that ran the school, and there is no evidence

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