2 years after Catholic diocese bankruptcy, sex-abuse accusers’ lawyers say church delaying settlement
Two years after the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy to help manage its response to hundreds of child sexual abuse lawsuits, attorneys for some of the survivors say the diocese has taken unprecedented steps to delay resolving the case.
More than 480 people who say they were sexually abused decades ago by San Diego-area Catholic priests have filed claims against the diocese in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. But the diocese and its insurer have filed objections seeking to dismiss more than 160 of those claims. Individuals whose claims are dismissed would receive no compensation once the bankruptcy is ultimately resolved.
“That many claim objections is unprecedented,” said Stacey Benson, an attorney representing some of the survivors. Her firm, Jeff Anderson & Associates, regularly works on similar Catholic diocese bankruptcy litigation nationwide.
“Something to that scale has never happened before,” Benson said.
A spokesperson for the diocese declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Attorneys representing the diocese’s insurer, the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America and the Catholic Relief Insurance Company of America, also declined to comment. Attorneys representing the diocese did not respond to a message seeking comment.
It was not a new tactic. The local diocese also filed for bankruptcy in 2007, eventually settling more than 140 claims of sexual abuse for $198 million. At least a dozen other dioceses across the country have also filed for bankruptcy to help manage their response to child sexual abuse lawsuits.
Attorneys for the survivors, such as Irwin Zalkin, whose firm represents more than 100 victims, have long maintained that bankruptcy is a way for the Catholic church to reduce the compensation it must pay.
Zalkin has also alleged in a separate lawsuit that before the three-year window opened in 2020, the local diocese fraudulently transferred hundreds of properties to holding companies in order to reduce its assets and thereby lower the amount of money it might have to pay as part of a settlement. That lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, has also been halted because of the bankruptcy.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/202...ettlement/
Two years after the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy to help manage its response to hundreds of child sexual abuse lawsuits, attorneys for some of the survivors say the diocese has taken unprecedented steps to delay resolving the case.
More than 480 people who say they were sexually abused decades ago by San Diego-area Catholic priests have filed claims against the diocese in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. But the diocese and its insurer have filed objections seeking to dismiss more than 160 of those claims. Individuals whose claims are dismissed would receive no compensation once the bankruptcy is ultimately resolved.
“That many claim objections is unprecedented,” said Stacey Benson, an attorney representing some of the survivors. Her firm, Jeff Anderson & Associates, regularly works on similar Catholic diocese bankruptcy litigation nationwide.
“Something to that scale has never happened before,” Benson said.
A spokesperson for the diocese declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Attorneys representing the diocese’s insurer, the Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America and the Catholic Relief Insurance Company of America, also declined to comment. Attorneys representing the diocese did not respond to a message seeking comment.
It was not a new tactic. The local diocese also filed for bankruptcy in 2007, eventually settling more than 140 claims of sexual abuse for $198 million. At least a dozen other dioceses across the country have also filed for bankruptcy to help manage their response to child sexual abuse lawsuits.
Attorneys for the survivors, such as Irwin Zalkin, whose firm represents more than 100 victims, have long maintained that bankruptcy is a way for the Catholic church to reduce the compensation it must pay.
Zalkin has also alleged in a separate lawsuit that before the three-year window opened in 2020, the local diocese fraudulently transferred hundreds of properties to holding companies in order to reduce its assets and thereby lower the amount of money it might have to pay as part of a settlement. That lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, has also been halted because of the bankruptcy.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/202...ettlement/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
