The Boy Scouts of America will receive more than $ 1 billion from their top insurer and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in an interim deal to resolve the sexual abuse claims of thousands of men they say are going being abused decades ago by master scouts and others.
Under the deal, insurance company The Hartford will pay $ 787 million in a fund to be set up for the men, the company said in a press release Tuesday. In return for the payment, the Boy Scouts and their councils will release The Hartford in full from any obligation arising from the policies issued to them by the insurance company.
Under a separate agreement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to pay $ 250 million to the fund for abuse claimants. The Salt Lake City-based church was the largest sponsor of Scout troops before ending its long-standing collaboration with the organization early last year.
“This has been a protracted process that included, as one stakeholder, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a former sponsoring organization. This contribution will provide opportunities to alleviate the suffering of those who have experienced abuse.” said Church spokesman Eric Hawkins in a statement.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condemns abuses of any kind. We express our love and concern for those who have experienced abuse through Scouting or any other circumstance. ”
The proposed settlements are part of an ongoing effort by the Boy Scouts, which went bankrupt in February 2020, to forge a reorganization plan that must get the approval of most victims of abuse and court. According to The Associated Press, lawyers are still trying to negotiate a deal with the Boy Scouts’ other big insurer, Century Indemnity.
The agreement in principle with The Harford was reached in connection with the bankruptcy of Chapter 11 of the Boy Scouts and will become a final agreement under certain conditions, including the execution of a final settlement agreement, the confirmation of the plan of overall resolution of the Scouts, receipt of enforcement releases from local councils and approval of the bankruptcy court as part of the overall Scout reorganization plan.
An official victims’ committee appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee opposes the deal, as do law firms that separately represent hundreds of men who have filed sexual abuse claims. Representatives of the official victims’ committee described the proposed settlements as “gravely unfair,” the AP reported.
“The only winners of this latest proposal are the Boy Scouts, their local councils, the Mormon Church and the Hartford insurance company,” said Michael Pfau, a lawyer whose firm represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs. bankruptcy abuse, in a prepared statement. .
“Boy Scouts offer abuse survivors a fraction of what their cases are worth and the assets available to pay for them,” Pfau added. “The Mormon church is said to have about $ 100 billion in assets, but it offers about $ 250 million to compensate for the thousands of survivors who were mistreated by Mormon Scout leaders.”
The new deal with The Hartford was negotiated after the bankruptcy judge last month rejected two key provisions of a $ 850 million settlement the Boy Scouts had reached with lawyers representing the majority of abuse plaintiffs, according to the P.
Judge Laura Selber Silverstein denied the Boy Scouts’ request as part of that permission agreement to withdraw from a previous $ 650 million deal she had reached with The Hartford. The Boy Scouts attempted to withdraw from that April deal after abuse plaintiffs’ attorneys repeatedly insisted that their clients would never vote for a reorganization plan that included it.
Silverstein also rejected a proposal for Boy Scouts to pay millions of dollars in legal fees and attorneys’ fees hired by a coalition of law firms representing tens of thousands of abuse plaintiffs. The judge noted that any such payment would come out of the pockets of the same abuse plaintiffs, the AP reported.
The new deal with The Hartford was the product of negotiations that included lawyers representing an ad hoc group called the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice. The law firms affiliated with the group represent more than 60,000 sexual abuse plaintiffs.
“These are very significant events,” said Ken Rothweiler, the law firm is affiliated with the coalition and represents approximately 16,800 abuse plaintiffs.
The proposed settlements, along with the $ 850 million contribution from scouts and local councils, would bring the fund for abuse plaintiffs to nearly $ 1.9 billion, according to the AP. If approved, the plan would represent one of the largest sexual abuse settlements in U.S. history.