MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer
By Richard Chin / St. Paul Pioneer Press on Dec 15, 2016
ST. PAUL—Competing bankruptcy payment plans drawn up by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and victims of clerical sexual abuse will go to the victims as well as parishes, vendors and other creditors for a vote.
Judge Robert Kressel, presiding over the archdiocese’s case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minnesota, ordered lawyers on both sides Thursday to start preparing documents and ballots that will be sent to creditors in the case, including hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The vote is expected early next year.
The archdiocese plan calls for a proposed trust fund for claimants of about $150 million, the bulk of which will come from settlements with insurance carrier groups. The archdiocese would also contribute about $14 million in direct cash and other assets from the church to the trust fund, and $500,000 for a counseling fund for victims of sexual abuse.
The competing plan developed by the survivors’ committee calls for the archdiocese to pay about $80 million of its own money or money it would raise through borrowing. The plan developed by lawyers for about 450 victims also would allow the victims to pursue claims against the insurance companies which survivors’ lawyers believe will exceed the amount being offered in the archdiocese plan. The victims’ plan also would allow the survivors to continue to seek claims in lawsuits against individual parishes.
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