Albany Times- Union | By Brendan J. Lyons, Managing Editor
July 25, 2024
ALBANY — An advocacy coalition is urging state lawmakers to convene a hearing to examine why the Department of Financial Services is allegedly declining to compel insurance companies to cover claims for the systemic sexual abuse of children that was allegedly concealed by the Catholic church and other institutions.
The advocates, who are associated with the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, sent a letter Thursday to key legislators, including state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal. They were staunch supporters of the Child Victims Act, which had temporarily lifted the statute of limitations to allow alleged victims of sexual abuse to file once time-barred claims against their abusers or the institutions that harbored them.
The group’s outreach comes after Chubb Insurers, one of the world’s largest publicly traded insurance companies, recently won a key state appellate court decision in litigation involving the Archdiocese of New York. The ruling found the longtime insurer can move forward in challenging whether its policies covered claims for child sexual abuse that may have been enabled and covered up by church leaders. The archdiocese’s request to appeal that decision to the state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, was rejected earlier this month.
The company hailed that decision as “another blow to the Archdiocese of New York’s plan to delay and try to shift away blame for their own acts.”
“This case will now proceed, and the archdiocese must disclose what they knew about the abuse, when they knew it, and the lengths they went to cover it up,” the company’s statement said. “You can’t buy insurance for intended acts. The archdiocese has acknowledged many of the plaintiffs’ allegations that it concealed, tolerated and abetted child molestation, which continued for decades because of the archdiocese’s cover-up and its unconscionable failure to stop the abuse when it had the knowledge and opportunity to do so.”
In the face of the court loss, the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which bills itself as an independent alliance of survivors of child sex abuse, has been seeking help from lawmakers to compel the Department of Financial Services to hold insurers accountable for what they said is a requirement for insurers to cooperate with the provisions of the Child Victims Act.
“The department is charged with regulating and supervising financial institutions, including insurers, yet it has not made any effort to enforce its own guidance against a multibillion-dollar industry that is failing its responsibility to pay out claims in cases of childhood sexual abuse — cases that involve the most vulnerable abuse victims,” the group’s letter states. “Alarmingly, we have learned that DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris was previously employed by Chubb’s longtime legal counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and has deep ties to CHUBB’s trusted adviser at Sullivan & Cromwell, Rodgin Cohen, whom Harris has described as her friend and mentor.”
Ciara Marangas, a spokeswoman for the Department of Financial Services, declined to address the assertions about Harris and issued a statement identical to what she had said previously, noting the agency, “has and continues to take this issue extremely seriously.”
“At present, we are actively monitoring ongoing litigation as the courts seek to answer important legal questions about insurers’ contractual liabilities and will hold insurers accountable for their obligations as appropriate,” the statement said.
The coalition claims Chubb Insurers is following a script that other insurance companies are deploying to allegedly avoid paying policies covering institutions facing litigation for employees or others accused of sexual abuse. The cases include schools, municipal agencies, religious organizations and hospitals.
“Their cynical tactics for evading claims have unfortunately become a template for insurers, not just in New York, but across the entire country,” the coalition wrote in its letter, which was also sent to state Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie. “DFS has the power and authority to help, but so far has done absolutely nothing — thereby inflicting further trauma and harm on survivors.”
The advocates also have asked the office of state Attorney General Letitia James to “step in and investigate insurers like Chubb to ensure they uphold their legal responsibilities to childhood sexual abuse survivors.”
Chubb Insurers have cast the coalition’s allegations as offensive and asserted that it’s wrong “to even suggest that anyone other than the Archdiocese of New York bears the moral responsibility for the sexual abuse perpetuated in its churches and schools.”
“The archdiocese has the financial resources to pay compensation to victims right now, and it should do so,” the company’s said previously. “The (archdiocese and the coalition) know that insurance policies cover damages from accidents. You can’t buy insurance for intended acts the (archdiocese) has admitted: concealing, tolerating and abetting child molestation, which continued for decades because of the … cover-up and its unconscionable failure to stop the abuse when it had the knowledge and opportunity to do so.”
In court filings, the Chubb Insurers have noted they have been continuing to defend both the Archdiocese of New York and its affiliated parishes and schools, but they have also sought more details on the organizations’ handling of sexual abuse cases, including details of any criminal conduct and the systematic efforts to cover it up.
Chubb Insurers have asserted that their companies “have no duty to provide insurance coverage” in many of the sex abuse cases and that the Archdiocese of New York “alone must bear the full financial consequences of its criminal behavior.”
They noted that for decades the archdiocese’s clergy and employees raped and molested children entrusted to them in churches, schools and camps. The archdiocese hid those crimes, the insurer has alleged, and “protected the perpetrators, and in many cases, punished and stigmatized those victims brave enough to come forward.”
The coalition claims the insurers have used their strategy in multiple jurisdictions, including cases involving Rockefeller University Hospital, Boy Scouts of America and school districts across New York.
The Archdiocese of New York is affiliated with or operates dozens of churches, schools and other entities that are facing thousands of claims under the Child Victims Act and the Adult Survivors Act.
Chubb Insurers issued policies to the Archdiocese of New York beginning in 1956, but says they were intended to cover accidents, and not damages for “bodily injury that the insured expected or intended.” In 1986, Chubb Insurers began adding sexual molestation exclusions in its excess policies and, in 1988, to the primary policies.