A jury in Portland, Oregon slapped the Boy Scouts with $1.4 million in damages on Tuesday after finding that the organisation was reckless when it failed to oust an assistant scoutmaster who molested one of his charges in the 1980s.
The jury also decided that the movement would be liable for up to $25 million in punitive damages in the case of Kerry Lewis, 38, who filed the charges against the Boy Scouts, the Oregonian reported.
Lewis had charged Boy Scouts with negligently allowing assistant scoutmaster Timur Dykes to continue to work with the boys, even after he admitted to a bishop in the Church of Latter Day Saints that he had molested 17 boy scouts.
The Church was the scout troop's sponsoring organisation and was ordered to pay 25 percent of the $1.4 million fine.