Cardinal Dolan says archdiocese is suing insurer to force it to pay sex abuse claims

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2024 / 12:20 pm

New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan this week said the archdiocese’s longtime insurer is “attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims, with the archdiocese launching a lawsuit against the insurer in response.

The prelate said in a letter to the faithful on Tuesday that the archdiocese has already settled more than 500 claims of sex abuse “not covered by insurance.” Yet there remain around 1,400 unresolved abuse allegations, Dolan said. 

“It has always been our wish to expeditiously settle all meritorious claims,” the archbishop said. “However, Chubb, for decades our primary insurance company, even though we have paid them over $2 billion in premiums by today’s standards, is now attempting to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation to settle covered claims which would bring peace and healing to victim-survivors.” 

“As a result we have sued them for violating New York’s General Business Law, which protects New York consumers from deceptive and fraudulent business practices,” the archbishop said. 

The insurer has “abandoned its archdiocese and parish policyholders and those people such policies were purchased to protect, the survivors of child sexual abuse,” Dolan said. 

He argued that Chubb “scurrilously” claims that the abuse of victims was “expected or intended” by the Catholic Church, meaning settlements stemming from that abuse cannot be covered by insurance. 

Dolan called that argument “false” and “outrageous” and said the insurer is merely trying “to protect their bottom line.” He alleged that the Archdiocese of San Francisco was similarly denied coverage by Chubb.

The plan, the prelate said, “is designed to delay, delay, and further delay, hoping to force the archdiocese to pay the claims Chubb is legally responsible for paying but has refused to pay. A sad story!”

In a statement to CNA on Tuesday morning the company argued that the archdiocese “tolerated, concealed, and covered up rampant child sexual abuse for decades, and despite having substantial financial resources, they still refuse to compensate their victims.”

“Instead, the archdiocese is attempting to shift responsibility for its actions onto insurers but won’t turn over information regarding what it knew about the abuse,” the company said, alleging further that the archdiocese has “concealed their vast wealth and hidden assets.”

“This is just another financial maneuver by the archdiocese to deflect, hide, and avoid responsibility,” Chubb said.

Dolan, meanwhile, said the archdiocese “can’t and won’t let this destroy us.” 

“This challenge will strengthen our resolve to rely confidently upon the infinite power of the holy name of Jesus,” he wrote. “With him, nothing is impossible! Without him, nothing is possible!”

This isn’t the first time the New York Archdiocese has struggled with insurance claims. The archdiocese in 2019 filed a lawsuit against 31 insurance companies, including Chubb, charging that many intended to limit or deny insurance claims related to abuse. The Archdiocese of Baltimore launched a similar lawsuit earlier this year. 

Last week the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York announced it has reached a massive settlement of more than $300 million for victims of clerical sex abuse there, bringing an end to a four-year-long process to resolve abuse claims.

The amount represents the largest settlement in U.S. diocesan bankruptcy history and will be distributed to about 600 abuse survivors. Insurance companies are set to distribute about $85 million of that amount, the diocese said.