Two 77-year-old men say they were switched at birth

Two men said they were switched at birth at a hospital in West Virginia in the summer of 1942, and the 77-year-olds have filed a lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese over the alleged swap.

John William Carr III and Jackie Lee Spencer said they were sent home with the wrong families after they were born on Aug. 29, 1942, at St. Joseph Hospital in Buckhannon, W.V., the Associated Press reported.

They filed their suit against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston on Friday in Monongalia County Circuit Court, according to The Dominion Post newspaper. In their suit, the men said that DNA tests indicated they each belonged to the other man’s family.

Tim Bishop, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, said in a statement to the Daily News that St. Joseph Hospital was operated by another religious order outside of the purview of the diocese and that the diocese doesn’t know why it was named in the suit.

“The Diocese has never been involved in the management, administration or oversight of the hospital during its existence," Bishop said in the statement.

With News Wire Services