Diocese of Duluth Sets May Deadline for Abuse Claims

By Tom Corrigan
Wall Street Journal
January 4, 2016

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2016/01/04/diocese-of-duluth-sets-may-deadline-for-abuse-claims/

This photo shows the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth, Minn., Monday, Dec. 7, 2015. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth asked a judge to give victims until May to come forward with abuse allegations. Dan Kraker/Minnesota Public Radio via Associated Press

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth, Minn., which filed for bankruptcy last month following an $8.17 million clergy sexual-abuse verdict, has asked a judge to give victims until May to come forward with abuse allegations.

In bankruptcy-court papers, the diocese asked Judge Robert Kressel to impose a May 25 deadline by which victims must file specially written—and highly detailed—claim forms in order to seek compensation. A hearing on the proposed claims deadline, also known as the bar date, is scheduled for Thursday.

The requested deadline would give victims the full benefit of the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which expires May 25. The act, passed by the Minnesota legislature in 2013, lifted the statute of limitations for sexual-abuse cases in the state for three years, leading to the waves of abuse-related lawsuits. Other states like Delaware have enacted similar acts, known as “window” legislation.

When it filed for bankruptcy, the Diocese of Duluth faced six lawsuits and 12 additional claims of abuse, according to the Rev. James Bissonette, vicar general of the diocese. In other diocesan bankruptcies, the number of claims has grown significantly as more victims come forward to seek compensation ahead of the deadline.

The deadline to bring claims in the bankruptcy case of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which filed for chapter 11 a year ago, was August 2015, prompting objections from abuse victims and their advocates who said the archdiocese shouldn’t curtail the window opened by the Minnesota legislature.

The Diocese of Duluth is the 15th Catholic diocese or religious order to file for chapter 11 to address claims of past sexual abuse. The diocese said that filing for bankruptcy, which temporarily freezes all litigation, would allow it to work out a plan to fairly compensate all victims while preserving the diocese’s pastoral and charitable mission.

Other dioceses that have turned to chapter 11 as a result of mounting abuse-related liabilities have established trusts or other legal mechanisms to provide some compensation to victims of past abuse who come forward after the deadline.

Write to Tom Corrigan at tom.corrigan@wsj.com