DULUTH (MN)
Duluth News Tribune
December 13, 2017
By Tom Olsen
A second insurer has agreed to settle its part in a lawsuit brought by the Diocese of Duluth in its ongoing bankruptcy.
Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. would pay the diocese $975,000 to resolve claims filed in federal court in June 2016. It is the second of five insurers named in the lawsuit to reach an agreement.
The proposed settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, would be used to continue litigation against the remaining insurers with the goal of obtaining monetary damages for victims of child sexual abuse, according to court documents.
While the agreement inches the diocese closer to resolving its already 2-year-old bankruptcy case, officials have stressed that much work remains to be done.
“This tentative settlement is another step toward the two goals that remain our priority here: providing compensation to victims in the most just way possible and emerging from bankruptcy as soon as we can,” said Deacon Kyle Eller, a diocese spokesman.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2015 in the wake of a $4.9 million verdict in the first case to go to trial under the Minnesota Child Victims Act. It sued the five insurers six months later, seeking to force coverage of 125 abuse claims received in the bankruptcy case.
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