A unanimous Idaho Supreme Court has cleared the way for a lawsuit to proceed against the Boy Scouts of America and the LDS Church by a group of men who are suing for fraud, saying they were sexually abused by scout leaders as children, and the Boy Scouts and the church knew the children were in danger from the leaders, and not only failed to disclose that, but assured the boys the leader in question was a “great guy,” a “wonderful man,” or a “friend to whom you can always turn for advice.”

The lawsuit, charging “constructive fraud,” is pending in federal court. But after the Boy Scouts and the church argued that it should be barred by an Idaho statute of limitations, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill referred that question to the Idaho Supreme Court for a ruling on which civil statute of limitations should apply.

Idaho has for three: One for personal injury claims, at two years; one for fraud, at three years from the time of discovering the fraud; and a “catch-all” provision, at four years. The Boy Scouts and church argued the case should be treated as a personal injury claim, but Winmill rejected that argument. “Plaintiffs are not complaining that the Boy Scouts and the LDS Church sexually abused them; they are complaining that these institutions deceived them by telling them to trust their Scoutmasters and, at the same time, not telling them about the dangers of pedophilic Scoutmasters. So in that sense, plaintiffs are not pursuing personal-injury claims; they are pursuing fraud claims,” he ruled.

Idaho Supreme Court Justice Roger Burdick, in a unanimous ruling, wrote that the question of whether the case involved a personal-injury claim was not before the state court; just the question of which was the appropriate statute of limitations for a constructive fraud case. And he found that previous Idaho case law dictates that it’s the fraud one, three years from discovery of the fraud. “Constructive fraud” is a type of fraud that doesn’t require proving malicious intent – just that the fraud involved a breach of duty where a “relation of trust and confidence” exists.

An attorney for the former scouts told the Associated Press the lawsuit would have been over if the Supreme Court had chosen one of the other statutes of limitations; you can read the full Idaho Supreme Court ruling here, and AP reporter Kimberlee Kruesi has a full report here.