Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese settles abuse claims for $

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Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese settles abuse claims for $

 

Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit

 

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AP via San Francisco Chronicle - Jul 14, 2007

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/07/14/state/n201648D62.DTL

 

Los Angeles archdiocese to pay $660M to settle abuse claims

 

By Gillian Flaccus

Associated Press Writer

 

Los Angeles -- The nation's largest Catholic archdiocese has settled

its abuse cases for $660 million, by far the largest payout in the

church's sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press has learned.

 

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the plaintiffs

reached the deal Saturday, said Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiff's

attorney. The archdiocese and the plaintiffs will release a statement

Sunday morning and hold a news conference Monday, he said.

 

An anonymous source with knowledge of the deal placed its value at $660

million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse

scandal. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the

settlement had not been officially announced.

 

The amount, which would average a little more than $1.3 million per

plaintiff, exceeded earlier reports that the settlement would be between

$600 million and $650 million.

 

Some Roman Catholic orders - the Servites, Clairites and Oblates - will

be carved out of the agreement because they refused to participate, the

source said. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential

priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the

litigation, Boucher said.

 

The settlements push the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since

1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from

the Los Angeles archdiocese.

 

It wasn't immediately clear how the payout would be split among the

insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A

judge must sign off on the agreement.

 

The release of the priest documents was important to the agreement,

Boucher said, because it could reveal whether archdiocesan leaders were

involved in covering up for abusive priests.

 

"Transparency is a critical part of this and of all resolutions," he

said.

 

Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the archdiocese, did not immediately

return a call seeking comment late Saturday. Previously, he said the

church would be in court on Monday.

 

Plaintiff Steven Sanchez, who was expected to testify in the first

trial, said he was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. He sued the

archdiocese claiming abuse by the late Rev. Clinton Hagenbach, who died

in 1987.

 

"I was really emotionally ready to take on the archdiocese in court in

less than 48 hours, but I'm glad all victims are going to be

compensated," he said. "I hope all victims will find some type of

healing in this process."

 

The settlement is the largest ever by a Roman Catholic diocese since the

clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest

payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., in 2004, for

$100 million.

 

Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses - Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane,

Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego - sought

bankruptcy protection.

 

The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic

orders have paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims so far. The

largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60

million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the

mid-1950s and after 1987 - periods when it had little or no sexual

abuse insurance.

 

Several religious orders in California have also reached

multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the

Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

 

However, more than 500 other lawsuits against the archdiocese had

remained unresolved despite years of legal wrangling. Most of the

outstanding lawsuits were generated by a 2002 state law that revoked

for one year the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.

 

Cardinal Roger Mahony recently told parishioners in an open letter that

the archdiocese was selling its high-rise administrative building and

considering the sale of about 50 other nonessential church properties to

raise funds for a settlement.

 

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the cases recently

ruled that Mahony could be called to testify in the second trial on

schedule, and attorneys for plaintiffs wanted to call him in many more.

 

The same judge also cleared the way for four people to seek punitive

damages - something that could have opened the church to tens of

millions of dollars in payouts if the ruling had been expanded to other

cases.

 

 

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