Former resident gives victims voice in Boy Scouts bankruptcy

By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert
Guam Daily Post
May 4, 2020

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/former-resident-gives-victims-voice-in-boy-scouts-bankruptcy/article_11d45280-8d05-11ea-a6d5-e36e18c707a7.html

Late Guam priest Louis Brouillard sits on the porch at his home in Pine City, Minn., April 25, 2018. Brouillard died Oct. 11, 2018, at the age of 97. The former priest and Boy Scouts scoutmaster has been named in dozens of clergy sex abuse cases filed in local and federal courts on Guam.

A former Guam resident now living in Virginia sits on an official committee that represents the interests of potentially thousands of survivors of child sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy case.

Guam's abuse claims represent more than a quarter of the approximately 275 pending civil actions asserting personal injury claims against the Boy Scouts across the nation, as of Feb. 18.

Across the United States, some 1,400 additional claims of abuse against the Boy Scouts are anticipated.

Morgan Wade Paul, a former Guam altar boy and Boy Scout, was appointed to sit on the nine-member official committee of unsecured creditors in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy.

Paul, represented by Lujan & Wolff LLP, filed a Guam lawsuit in 2017, alleging that Guam priest and Boy Scout scoutmaster Louis Brouillard had sexually abused him repeatedly for a scout swimming merit badge around 1975.

As a member of the committee representing Boy Scouts abuse survivors, Paul – and Guam – will have a voice in how the victim compensation trust will be structured, among other things.

Lujan & Wolff is one of 25 law firms nationwide with the largest number of representations of holders of abuse claims against the Boy Scouts. The local firm represents more than 70 child sexual abuse cases filed against the organization.

Other Guam law firms also represent dozens of claimants. A number of them received settlement from the Boy Scouts prior to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing on Feb. 18 in a Delaware court.

Paul was the 23rd person on Guam to file a childhood sex abuse claim, since the lifting of the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse in 2016.

In his 2017 lawsuit, Paul said he was proud to be an altar boy and a member of Boy Scout Troop 18 in Mongmong, and was motivated to earn his swimming and lifesaving merit badges.

But in the lawsuit, Paul alleges Brouillard wouldn't give Paul a swimming merit badge until after he performed sex acts for Brouillard, who is also accused in about 150 sex abuse claims on Guam.

The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in order to equitably compensate abuse victims during their time in scouting, and continue carrying out its mission.

A separate official committee was appointed to represent the interests of other unsecured creditors such as suppliers, vendors and pensioners.

The appointment of these committees is a step in the Boy Scouts' bankruptcy case and clears the way for the process to move forward.