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	Archdiocese Releases Files on Priests to Its Insurers The Insurance Companies, Which Have Fought for Months to See the Records, Object to the "Unusable Form" of the 200,000 Documents By Steve Woodward The Oregonian [Oregon] June 22, 2005 Seven months after promising to release the personal files of 37 priests accused of molesting children, the Archdiocese of Portland handed over this month the contents of nearly 100 boxes of records to insurance companies that are fighting the church over paying for sex-abuse settlements. The 10 insurers hope to use the files to show that archdiocesan officials were aware of sex-abuse allegations against their clergymen, yet routinely did nothing to stop the alleged activity. If true, the practice would invalidate the liability insurance policies. Otherwise, the insurers would be obligated to pay for settlements and legal defense costs, which could exceed $16 million. In an e-mail made public last week, a Portland-based lawyer for the insurers, Joseph A. Field, complained to archdiocesan lawyers that they had "dumped" an estimated 200,000 pages of documents "in an unreasonable and unusable form." Field wrote that the archdiocese instructed the company that scans the documents into electronic form to block insurers from accessing the original source files or file labels, leaving them unable to sort the files or take inventory. "I wouldn't say we dumped them," archdiocese spokesman Bud Bunce said Tuesday. "I'd say we gave them what they wanted." Bunce said the archdiocese has since agreed to provide the source labels. The insurance action is part of the complex bankruptcy of the Portland archdiocese, the first of three U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses ever to seek Chapter 11 reorganization. The archdiocese filed for protection from creditors in July last year. Two months after filing for bankruptcy, the archdiocese sued 10 of its liability insurers. The archdiocese alleged that the companies had abandoned their responsibility to defend the church against mounting sexual-abuse claims -- now numbering 249 -- and to pay for millions of dollars in settlements. The insurers, in turn, already had a long-pending suit against the archdiocese, arguing that the insurance policies didn't cover the church because its officials knowingly hid the sex abuse from the insurers. Such behavior, they said, invalidated the policies. The insurers staked their case on showing that the archdiocese had a standing practice over five decades of sheltering priests who had been accused of child sexual molestation. As in most lawsuits, the defendant insurance companies were allowed to conduct discovery: that is, they could ask the archdiocese for documents and other evidence that could help bolster their case in a trial. In November last year, the lawyer handling the archdiocese's insurance litigation assured insurers in a letter that the church was willing to produce the documents -- one of several times, the insurers complained, they were promised documents that didn't materialize. In January, the insurers filed an official request for the archdiocese to produce personnel files and other documents related to the 37 priests who the church said have been accused of sexual abuse. Two months later, the archdiocese produced its answer: 12 pages of objections and no documents -- not even the names of the 37 priests. The insurers' request for all documents that relate to any sexual conduct by the priests was rejected by the archdiocese as "wholly irrelevant." Reasons for that and other objections also included First Amendment privilege, privacy rights, attorney-client privilege, clergy-penitent privilege, ambiguous language and a burdensome workload. Michael Prough, a lawyer for one of the insurers, fired back in a 15-page April 25 letter, which became public last week: "The Archdiocese's objection that the documents are not relevant is without merit in light of the fact that (it) is for the acts of these very priests that the Archdiocese is seeking insurance coverage." Prough's letter went on to accuse the archdiocese of refusing to answer factually any of the insurers' requests for certain information. "Your objections to these requests are unfounded and largely frivolous," Prough wrote. Insurers intend to argue next Tuesday before Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris that the archdiocese possibly continues to withhold relevant documents. The insurers' latest motion states that the archdiocese has produced documents on only 12 of the 37 priests in question. The archdiocese's Bunce, however, said documents for all 37 priests have been handed over.