MONTANA
Beaumont Enterprise
MATT VOLZ, Associated Press
Updated 6:56 p.m., Tuesday, November 20, 2012
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Settlement negotiations between hundreds of alleged sex abuse victims and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena may have hit a snag with the church’s insurers refusing to cover the claims.
The insurers and the diocese are locked in a dispute over the terms and conditions of the diocese’s insurance policies that date back to the 1970s — and whether some policies even existed. The sides disagree on how policies apply to the 324 claims of sex abuse stretching back decades by priests and nuns in homes, churches and school across western Montana.
The claims are from two combined lawsuits filed last year against the diocese and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province. The plaintiffs, many of them Native Americans, say the diocese and the sisters knew or should have known about the abuse, but covered it up instead of stopping it.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.