More from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee:

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee plans to keep fighting a $16.8 million damage award, upheld on appeal Wednesday, for an 85-year-old man who was severely injured when his car was hit by a vehicle driven by a church group volunteer.

The state appeals court ruled against the archdiocese, but its attorney Frank Steeves said the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be asked to review the decision.

Last year a jury in Milwaukee County Circuit Court ruled in favor of Hjalmer Heikkinen of West Allis, whose car collided on March 25, 2002, with a vehicle driven by Margaret Morse, a woman running an errand for the Legion of Mary at Christ King parish in Wauwatosa.

The crash left Heikkinen paralyzed from the neck down.

The church and its insurer, the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America, appealed but the District 1 Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and judgment.

The court’s ruling likely won’t have much impact on other churches or organizations that rely on volunteers because the issue revolved around specific language in the Catholic Mutual insurance policy, said Terry Johnson, Morse’s attorney.

It is unusual for an insurance policy to grant coverage to volunteers working on behalf of the organization and therefore the ruling likely won’t have a very broad impact, Johnson said.