CV NEWS FEED // The Diocese of Rochester, New York, has begun a new set of discussions to settle the nearly 500 clergy sex abuse lawsuits filed against it.
The new discussions are the latest step in a four-year series of legal battles, proceedings, and conversations within the Diocese and with clergy sex abuse victims to file for bankruptcy in order to resolve the lawsuits and properly settle with the survivors.
The Rochester Beacon reported that the discussions will help several parties — including the survivors’ attorneys and lawyers for the Continental Insurance Company (CNA) — achieve a plan for diocesan reorganization that will result in financial settlements with the survivors.
As CatholicVote reported, the Diocese came up with a reorganization plan that was approved by the abuse survivors. However, a June 27 ruling on a Supreme Court case, Harrington v. Purdue Pharma LLP, negated the plan. The ruling prohibited bankruptcy judges from releasing parties involved in bankruptcy from future liabilities, which the original plan would have done with the Diocese.
CatholicVote also reported that the Diocese struggled to get CNA to cooperate with the initial plans, as conflicts over the amount of money CNA had to pay out to the survivors remained unresolved. Other insurance companies also involved in the bankruptcy filing were cooperative.
“Under the proposed plan, a $127.35 million trust fund would be created, out of which abuse survivors would be paid. The diocese and other insurance companies agreed to the plan, but Continental, however, did not agree to pay a sum that the committee of survivors found acceptable,” CatholicVote reported at the time.
According to the Rochester Beacon, struggles continued between the Diocese and CNA, taking the form of a rival reorganization plan submitted by the insurance company and rejected by the survivors. The two parties also continually failed to come up with a plan and spent millions of dollars in legal proceedings, which reportedly tested the patience of the bankruptcy court.
In an October 7 ruling in bankruptcy court, Judge Paul Warren wrote that “the time has come for the Court to appoint a new team of mediators to try to bring the abuse victims and CNA to a settlement. CNA and the abuse victims are urged not to waste this opportunity to finally settle their differences,” the Rochester Beacon reported.
“[B]oth CNA and the state court attorneys representing the abuse victims need to reexamine the lines in the sand they have drawn and find a way to move toward a realistic framework for settlement; if they can’t or won’t, then CNA and the abuse victims must be prepared to live with the consequences of their unwillingness to bend,” Warren reportedly stated.