WASHINGTON
National Catholic Reporter
Dan Morris-Young | Nov. 13, 2014
The law firm accused by the Spokane, Wash., diocese of mishandling a 2007 bankruptcy and settlement with clergy sex abuse victims filed a motion to dismiss the diocese’s claims on Monday in federal bankruptcy court.
Based in part on depositions from retired Bishop William Skylstad and Fr. Steven Dublinski, the diocese’s previous vicar general, the Monday filing charges that “the current claims are simply an attempt to throw mud at Paine Hamblen to try to get some insurance money.”
For its work leading to the 2007 settlement, the law firm of Paine Hamblen was ordered to be paid about $3.5 million by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patty Williams.
On Wednesday, the Spokane daily newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, reported that the diocese “is asking for at least $4 million in damages from the firm after alleging attorneys failed to disclose a conflict of interest in the case and were wrong about how many claims would be made against the church by abuse victims.”
“The diocese sought to change the terms of its bankruptcy settlement after a flurry of abuse allegations, most of them outside of Spokane, depleted the $1 million fund the church had set aside to pay future claims,” wrote Spokesman-Review reporter Kip Hill, adding that Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich “and the diocese say Paine Hamblen undershot the amount that would be necessary to pay future claimants because lawyers failed to conduct an independent study of potential cases and limited the diocese’s ability to challenge payments out of the victim fund.”
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.