Insurance Company Files Suit Against Catholic Diocese

MISSOURI
KCUR

By ELLE MOXLEY

The company that provided the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph its liability insurance in the 1970s says it shouldn’t have to defend the church or pay damages in a litany of sexual abuse cases.

The U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Co. filed suit in federal court Friday against the diocese, which has been sued by more than a dozen plaintiffs who say they were victims of sexual abuse in the ’60s and ’70s. In the majority of those cases, the court has dismissed all claims against the diocese except the intentional failure to supervise clergy.

The insurance company says the policies it underwrote only cover injuries that were the result of accidents, not injuries that were expected or intended on the part of the diocese.

“The issue is, did the supervising bishop or supervising personnel know or should have known that the priest or clergyman was abusing children?” says Peter Swisher, a law professor at the University of Richmond (Va.) who has written extensively about liability insurance in the wake of church abuse scandals.

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