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  Court's Ruling Looms Large on Clergy Abuse Payouts
As Other Cities Show, Settlements Differ Widely Depending on the Law

By Tom Heinen
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [United States]
July 9, 2005

Two cities separated by a river symbolize the potential impact of a soon-to-be-released state Supreme Court decision on the ability of people sexually abused as minors by clergy to sue churches.

On the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, a judge last week gave preliminary approval to the settlement of a class-action lawsuit in the Covington Diocese that could reach a national-record $120 million for clergy sexual abuse.

Ad campaigns soon will reach out to people victimized in the diocese, which until 1988 covered the eastern half of the state. The diocese is moving its offices from a building on a 300-acre site that it might sell.

On the river's Ohio side, a $3.2 million compensation fund was distributed this year by the Cincinnati Archdiocese to 117 people who said priests sexually abused them. Upset by the fund's size, some victims declined to participate.

The fund - which ended up equal to about $27,300 per victim - was created in exchange for the county prosecutor dropping a criminal investigation. The archdiocese was fined $10,000.

Since the mid-1990s, two Wisconsin Supreme Court rulings have virtually halted lawsuits here by clergy abuse victims. Oral arguments were heard this year on a case challenging those rulings, and the court is expected to rule this month.

One of the rulings from the mid-1990s cited constitutional church-state separation reasons in barring lawsuits against churches for failing to supervise clergy.

The other said that people abused as minors could not get around expired statutes of limitation - the time period in which lawsuits can be filed - even if they did not realize their psychological injury until later.

Ohio and Kentucky require that such suits be filed within one to two years of reaching age 18.

"Ohio courts have been strident," said Barbara Bonar, a Covington attorney who represents victims. "They just have been unwilling to look at other possibilities or exceptions."

But in Kentucky, a mid-1990s court decision allows the time period to be extended for lawsuits if a diocese fraudulently concealed its knowledge of a priest's misconduct, she said.

Not all cases would meet that criterion, but the potential for some large jury verdicts added leverage for the settlement, said Bonar and other attorneys.

And Covington Bishop Roger Foys, 59, who was installed in 2002, has been key, she said.

"They could have fought," Bonar said. "They took the position they were going to resolve these. When (Foys) came here, he said: 'I want this pain to go away. I want to meet with these individuals and tell them I am sorry on behalf of the church and I want to help them.' "

The settlement includes victims of lay employees and of a few religious order priests who taught at diocesan high schools.

The Covington Diocese will pay up to $40 million. Insurers will pay up to $80 million if the diocese wins lawsuits against them. The total payout could be much less, depending on how many victims come forward.

Payments will range from $5,000 to $450,000. Victims of especially severe abuse can seek $550,000 more. Abuse categories the diocese used previously to settle claims of 56 victims outside the class-action suit will be used. Those payments averaged $180,000 to $200,000.

Lawsuits pending here The Milwaukee Archdiocese, which faces nearly a dozen lawsuits in California from victims of priests who were sent there, has a lawsuit pending against about 50 insurance companies to get them to accept responsibility for such suits.

Mediation efforts have affected potential liabilities here.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, 55, who arrived in 2002, apologized for the church at group listening sessions and met privately with victims. In late 2003, he announced that he was setting up about a $4 million settlement fund from the planned sale of properties and had commissioned an independent dispute resolution system for individual mediation.

That did not include selling the Cousins Center, which houses archdiocesan offices in St. Francis.

Dolan also agreed to group mediation with about 70 victims. Their representatives say they offered to settle for $8 million to $25 million before sessions broke off on March 8, 2004.

They blame the archdiocese for the halt, saying it issued non-negotiable demands shortly after the Legislature adopted a new clergy sexual abuse bill that did not include a way for victims to sue for old assaults.

The archdiocese disputes that. The two sides also do not agree on a key reason for the split - whether the archdiocese made a commitment at the start to include victims of religious order priests, brothers and nuns in any settlement.

"Whatever the precise number is, I don't think it's that important," Jim Smith, an attorney for the victims' group, said. "The conclusion is inescapable that if the Supreme Court opens the door to any meaningful percentage of this group, (the archdiocese's) exposure is multiples of what they could have settled these claims for."

A total of 64 victims of abuse by diocesan clergy signed individual mediation agreements with the archdiocese between Jan. 29, 2004, when the system started, and May 31, 2005, said Eva Soeka, who oversees the system outside of her duties as director of the Center for Dispute Resolution Education at Marquette University. Twenty cases were in mediation, and four were being investigated.

Both sides acknowledge that the total includes some victims from the group mediation. Because other victims have come forward, the group would number 70 to 80 if mediation resumed, said Peter Isely and Mark Salmon of the victims' mediation team.

Citing respect for victims' privacy, the archdiocese has not released settlement amounts. That irks advocates who favor group mediation.

The archdiocese has spent more than $4 million, archdiocesan spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl said. Properties sold for more than expected, and some remain to be sold, she added.

As of May 20, the archdiocese had spent $4,890,760 on mediation agreements and therapy through the independent mediation system, she said.

Isely said some victims he spoke with received settlements of $30,000 to $50,000, with the archdiocese continuing to pay for therapy. More recently, he has heard of people getting $100,000 to $125,000 with no continued payments for treatment.