ALBANY (NY)
Times Union [Albany NY]
March 12, 2025
By Brendan J. Lyons
A federal judge in Albany on Wednesday said he will allow seven child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to go to trial.
A federal judge in Albany on Wednesday said he will allow seven child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to go to trial after mediation efforts in the diocese’s bankruptcy case have languished.
The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Littlefield Jr. came as the attorneys for hundreds of alleged victims have been unable to reach a global settlement with the church and its insurers.
Cynthia S. LaFave, an Albany-area attorney whose firm, along with Jeff Anderson & Associates, represents 190 plaintiffs who have pending claims against the Albany diocese, said many victims are dying — or have died — as their cases were put on hold after the diocese filed for bankruptcy several years ago.
“The worst days that we live through are the days when we hear that one of the survivors that we represent has died, and that has happened so many times over the period of time since the Child Victims Act went into effect,” LaFave said. “And now we feel that finally, some of these survivors’ voices will be heard and they will be able to go back to (state) Supreme Court and have their stories told.”
During a hearing in January, Littlefield noted that in the last 13 months the only thing the bankruptcy case has produced was “millions of dollars in professional fees.”
“It is getting somewhat frustrating that all I’m doing is approving fees. I’m not approving anything of substance,” the judge said. “We’re just languishing on the sidelines. We need to jump-start the process, or the case is heading to failure.”
His decision this week was over the objections of attorneys for multiple insurance companies that hold policies for the diocese or its parishes and schools, who had argued that the mediation talks were not stalled and normally take several years or more to produce a result.
Kathy Barrans, a spokeswoman for the diocese, issued a statement saying the diocese “respects the court’s decision,” but does not believe it “will effectively aid in the mediation process to provide the greatest relief to the greatest number of claimants.”
“The diocese continues to believe in and advocate for the good faith participation of all parties in the mediation process,” the statement added. “We believe that’s the best path to come up with a plan to provide compensation to all survivors. We pray that today’s ruling is in the best interest of the survivors as they move forward in their healing process.”
Attorneys for the victims contend the mediation efforts had stalled, in part, because there have not been enough cases decided at trials to give the parties a more accurate picture of how much the victims should be compensated. Those attorneys said that several cases which were settled as the diocese threatened to file for bankruptcy more than two years ago did not establish that benchmark. They said those plaintiffs, some of whom were aging and in poor health, accepted deals out of fear they would otherwise get nothing.
“The only thing that settles cases with insurance companies and wrongdoers, namely, the diocese, is trials, heat; and the only thing that brings heat is the trial of cases before juries in the community to expose the wrongdoing, to expose the insurance companies and they’re intransigence,” said attorney Jeff Anderson.
“We’re really grateful that the judge has finally realized… the excruciating pain, excruciating damage done to these survivors by these ongoing delays that include more suffering, aggravated suffering, and in many cases, untimely deaths,” Anderson added.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys had noted in their arguments in favor of lifting the stay that a judge overseeing a bankruptcy case for the Buffalo diocese had issued a similar ruling allowing 17 claimants to go to trial to spur negotiations. That bankruptcy case has been pending for five years, and Littlefield cited that decision in his remarks at Wednesday’s hearing in Albany.
One of the cases that the Albany diocese settled prior to filing for bankruptcy was resolved in July 2022, when the church agreed to a $750,000 settlement with Stephen J. Mittler, a Saratoga County man who had been victimized as a child by a priest who was a serial sexual abuser.
Mittler’s lawsuit had been the first Child Victims Act case filed against the diocese to be scheduled for trial. His attorney said the diocese had threatened that it would file for bankruptcy before a trial if the case went forward.
“Whether that was hyperbole or truth, my client opted to settle to avoid waiting for the bankruptcy to resolve itself, which could take years,” Mittler’s attorney, Matthew J. Kelly, said at the time.
A motion filed recently by attorneys for the “tort committee,” which represents the alleged victims and is at the forefront of the ongoing mediation efforts, said blocking the lawsuits from moving ahead “takes away any risk of a trial and judgment, (and) the stay allows the insurers to ignore reasonable settlement offers and do nothing.”
They also pointed to litigation against the Archdiocese of New York in which an insurer has declined to indemnify the archdiocese on more than 1,000 child sexual abuse claims.
The Times Union reported a year ago that attorneys for Chubb Insurers, which reported more than $225 billion in assets and $57.5 billion of gross premiums written in 2023, have asserted in court filings that their companies “have no duty to provide insurance coverage” in many of these cases and that the Archdiocese of New York “alone must bear the full financial consequences of its criminal behavior.”
The Archdiocese of New York is affiliated with or operates dozens of churches, schools and other entities that are facing thousands of claims under both the Child Victims Act and the Adult Survivors Act. Those statutes temporarily lifted New York’s statute of limitations to allow survivors of abuse to file lawsuits against their abusers or the institutions that harbored them.
Chubb, which began issuing insurance policies to the Archdiocese of New York in 1956, says they do not cover damages for “bodily injury that the insured expected or intended.” In 1986, Chubb began adding sexual molestation exclusions in their excess policies (which extend the conditions of a pre-existing policy) and, in 1988, to their primary policies.
“For decades, the ADNY’s clergy and employees raped and molested children entrusted to them in ADNY-affiliated churches, schools, and camps,” attorneys for Chubb wrote in a memorandum filed in August in state Supreme Court. “The ADNY hid these crimes, protected the perpetrators, and in many cases, punished and stigmatized those victims brave enough to come forward. … Incredibly, the ADNY now portrays itself as the hero for finally acknowledging its wrongdoing, claiming its insurers stand in the way of justice and compensation for its victims.”
Attorneys for the alleged victims with pending claims against the Albany diocese said they fear attorneys for the insurance companies will try the same tactic here.
“One way or another, and sooner or later, this bankruptcy will arrive at the same point as the other 17 similar bankruptcies: Allowing claims to proceed in state court will be the only viable path for ensuring the insurers comply with their insurance contracts,” the tort committee’s motion asserted.