Twenty insurers are have had lawsuits filed against them over issues regarding sex abuse claims.
In Minnesota, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has now announced that it has filed lawsuits against 20 insurance companies in an effort to attempt to force those insurers to have to pay for the liabilities on claims involving sex abuse by the clergy.
The lawsuit has now been filed in federal court, saying that the archdiocese should have been covered for decades.
The complaint stated that the insurance companies had been providing liability coverage for the archdiocese that started near the end of the 1940s and that ran right through 1986. However, the archdiocese also said in the suit’s documentation that those insurers have not yet agreed to make a contribution to help to pay a broad settlement that now involves nearly two dozen suits as well as a range of other claims that people have filed, stating that they had suffered sexual abuse by priests.
The lawsuit is seeking an order to force those insurance companies to have to cover the legal fees and claims.
The archdiocese has filed the lawsuit in order to require the insurers with whom they had policies to have to pay for the claims of the individuals who had been victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, as well as to pay for the archdiocese’s legal fees.
According to a statement issued by Archbishop John Nienstedt, “So far, we have not been able to reach a global resolution with all the insurance companies.” He also added that “To that end, I approved the filing of a federal lawsuit in hopes the move will encourage the insurance companies to join with us in working together to help us achieve an equitable settlement for victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse.”
One of the attorneys representing the archdiocese, Lauren Lonergan, stated that while she wouldn’t actually say that the insurance companies that have been sued have actually issued a refusal to pay, but instead more vaguely said that there have been “a lot of complicated coverage issues” in which they have yet to reach an agreement.
