September 7, 2007

 NEARLY $200 MILLION DOLLAR SETTLEMENT REACHED

IN SAN DIEGO CATHOLIC DIOCESE CASE

After four years of  mediations, litigation and a chapter 11 bankruptcy, survivors of childhood sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Dioceses of San Diego, San Bernardino (which was once part of the Diocese of San Diego) and various Religious Orders will receive some acknowledgement of the suffering they have endured for decades.  Today after intensive mediation conducted by Federal Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas lawyers representing 144 survivors who had filed lawsuits in 2003 and the Diocese of San Diego, the Diocese of San Bernardino and various Religious Orders including the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, agreed that the 144 survivors will receive a global settlement of $198,125,000.00.  How much each survivor will receive will be decided through a valuation process to be conducted by California Superior Court Judge Peter Litchman, who engaged in a similar process with respect to the settlement of 508 sexual abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  In addition, the Dioceses of San Diego, San Bernardino and the Religious Orders have agreed to a process by which decades of documents previously kept secret relating to known perpetrators within these institutions will be made public.  Bishop Brom of the Diocese of San Diego will ask bankruptcy Judge Louise DeCarl Adler to dismiss the chapter 11 proceeding in light of the settlement.  

“This is an historic day for survivors.  This settlement is an acknowledgement of the severe pain and anguish that these people have suffered since they were children.  The unprecedented scope of the release of previously secret documents will serve to reveal the truth of the harm done to the children of this Diocese for decades and will hopefully insure that nothing like this can ever happen again.  These lawsuits have caused everyone to take seriously the protection of children.  Children today are still at risk.  There can be no tolerance of those who would harm our children, or for those who would protect and shelter the abusers.  The price of such indifference must be significant to deter such disregard or complicity ever again” said Irwin Zalkin the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs involved in the mediations.

In response to the scourge of childhood sexual abuse and in recognition that the devastating effects of such abuse may not be known until well into adulthood, the California Legislature opened a one year window in 2003 for adults who were victims of sexual abuse as children to file lawsuits.  As a result 145 survivors filed lawsuits against the Diocese of San Diego, the Diocese of San Bernardino which was once part of San Diego, and various Religious Orders operating within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of San Diego.  In February on the eve of the first of four jury trials in state court, the Diocese of San Diego filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy putting a halt to the those trials.