BishopAccountability.org

Judge reduces legal fees, costs by 7% in church bankruptcy case

By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert
Pacific Daily News
November 19, 2019

https://bit.ly/35bJRNW

The Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagåtña as seen on March 27, 2019 from one of the windows of the Guam Congress Building's session hall.

A federal judge reduced by 7% or about $23,218.67 the legal fees and reimbursable costs in the Archdiocese of Agana's bankruptcy case, after finding duplicate, inconsistent and erroneous billing entries.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood approved a $302,164.20 payment, down from $325,382.87, to Idaho-based Elsaesser Anderson Chtd., the archdiocese's bankruptcy counsel.

The archdiocese sought bankruptcy protection in January, under the weight of clergy sex abuse claims totaling more than $1 billion.

Efforts to settle the cases, however, have recently collapsed and parties await direction from the court.

This is Elsaesser Anderson's first professional fee application filed, for services rendered between Jan. 16 and July 31 this year.

"The compensation sought in the First Fee Application, as adjusted at the November 8, 2019 hearing, is reasonable compensation for actual and necessary services that benefited the estate," the judge wrote in her order.

The judge, however, reserved its ruling on the total amount of $12,075 or 66 hours of non-working travel time that the archdiocese's counsels requested. The judge ordered the U.S. Trustee and Elsaesser Anderson to confer.

Over the past weeks, the judge also issued written orders on the application for more than $1 million in compensation for most attorneys and other professionals involved in the archdiocese's bankruptcy case. These court-approved fees and costs are to be paid by the archdiocese.

Lawsuit: 2-year sexual abuse

Additional clergy sex abuse or childhood sexual abuse lawsuits continue to be filed in court even after the Aug. 15, 2019 cutoff to get in on the settlement that the archdiocese wanted to negotiate with abuse survivors.

The latest was filed by a former altar boy and former member of the Boy Scouts of America, identified in federal court documents only by the initials M.D., to protect his privacy.

He served as an altar boy at the Mangilao, Barrigada and Tumon Catholic churches, and was also a cub scout in Mangilao.

M.D. said in his $5 million lawsuit that Father Louis Brouillard sexually abused him for about two years, from around 1977 to 1979, during scouting activities at Lonfit River. Brouillard was also a scout master while serving as priest on Guam. M.D. was about 12 to 14 years old at the time, the lawsuit says.

"On each (Boy Scouts) outing to the Lonfit River, M.D. was sexually abused by Brouillard. This occurred on each outing while M.D. swam naked and Brouillard on each occasion fondled and groped his genitals," the lawsuit says.

M.D., now 51, is represented by attorney Michael Berman in his lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America and up to 50 other unnamed defendants.




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