A former student at a Seattle Catholic school was awarded $8 million in a lawsuit against the Catholic Church.

The lawsuit was against Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a worldwide Catholic religious order of priests, and it is believed to be the largest lawsuit against the church.

The jury found the former student, the plaintiff, at St. Benedict School was sexually abused between 1961 and 1964 by a former teacher and principal, Daniel Adamson.

The student testified that he asked the Oblate pastor, the Rev. Henry Conrad, for help, but the priest ignored him, according to attorneys with Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala Law.

During the time of the incident, the school was owned by the Seattle Archdiocese and taken over by Oblate priests. The student filed a lawsuit against both entities and settled with the Seattle Archdiocese in 2011.

According to attorneys, two other students testified that they told Conrad that Adamson was abusing them, but Conrad told them to stay quiet.

Even though the total verdict was $8 million, it will be reduced to $6.4 million because the jury  found the Seattle Archdioceses and the Dominican Sisters, another religious order who staffed the school, to be 20 percent responsible.

According to the student’s attorney, Michael T. Pfau, who has represented hundreds of abuse survivors, the verdict reflects reprehensible conduct by the Oblates.

Adamson died suddenly in the mid-1970s while he was still the principal of St. Benedict School.  In 2002, after nearly 100 years, the Oblates returned control of St. Benedict to the Seattle Archdiocese.