(LM Otero | AP) In this February 12, 2020 archive photo, a statue stands outside the Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas. One of the leading insurers of the Boy Scouts of America announced on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, that it has reached an interim agreement with the organization and with lawyers representing tens of thousands of men who say they were abused by youth. decades ago by explorers and others.
Dover, Del. • One of the main insurers of the Boy Scouts of America announced on Tuesday that it has reached an interim agreement with the organization and with lawyers representing tens of thousands of men who say they were assaulted decades ago by listening teachers and others. .
Under the deal, insurance company The Hartford will pay $ 787 million in a fund to be set for the men, the company said in a press release. In exchange for payment, the Boy Scouts organization and its local councils agreed to release The Hartford from any other liability with regard to sexual abuse claims.
Under a separate agreement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to pay $ 250 million in the fund for abuse claimants, Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said. The Utah-based denomination was the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops before ending its partnership with the BSA early last year.
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. Lawyers are still trying to negotiate a deal with the other big Boy Scouts insurer, Century Indemnity.
Official victim committees appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee and law firms that separately represent hundreds of men who have filed sexual abuse claims oppose the proposed agreements. Representatives of the official victims’ committee described the proposed settlements as “seriously unfair.”
“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 proposed settlements will be incorporated into a new reorganization plan that Boy Scouts’ lawyers were expected to present on Tuesday night.
The new deal with The Hartford was negotiated after last month the bankruptcy judge rejected two key provisions of a $ 850 million deal the BSA had reached with lawyers representing most of the abuse plaintiffs.
Judge Laura Selber Silverstein denied the BSA’s request as part of that leave 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 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 developments,” said Ken Rothweiler, whose law firm is affiliated with the coalition and represents approximately 16,800 abuse plaintiffs.
The proposed settlements, along with the $ 850 million contribution from the BSA and local councils, would bring the fund for abuse plaintiffs to nearly $ 1.9 billion. If approved, the plan would represent one of the largest sexual abuse settlements in U.S. history.
Meanwhile, the official victims ‘committee has estimated the total exposure of Boy Scouts insurers’ responsibilities for abuse claims to more than $ 100 billion.
The committee supported the previous agreement, which called for the withdrawal of the previous agreement with The Hartford and for the Boy Scouts and local BSA councils, which conduct day-to-day operations for Boy Scout troops, to provide $ 850 million and its rights to fund insurance policies for abuse claimants. The committee noted that the primary value of survivors of abuse under this agreement would come from the available insurance coverage.
Insurance companies backtracked on this plan, arguing that the proposed transfer of insurance rights illegally stripped them of their ability to question claims and unduly allowed the trustee overseeing the fund to victims determine what the insurers owe without being challenged. Insurers also questioned a provision that allowed expedited payments of $ 3,500 from the fund to resolve abuse claims, without question.
___
Sophia Eppolito, a member of the Salt Lake City-based American Corps of Report, contributed to this report.