The role of local Boy Scout councils in the national organization’s chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the sexual abuse crisis that propelled it, is a flashpoint in a slew of new lawsuits on behalf of men who say they were abused as scouts, USA Today reported. The latest case, filed in Montana on Tuesday by attorneys with Abused in Scouting, includes 10 men who say they were abused by scout leaders. In it, 10 John Does claim that the Montana Scout council is controlled by Boy Scouts of America to such a degree that it is “the alter ego of the BSA.” The same group filed another suit last month on behalf of eight men in Hawaii. Attorneys with the firm Crew Janci also filed five suits last week in Montana for six clients. Gillon Dumas of Dumas & Vaughn of Oregon filed another four in the last month. Another Seattle-based firm filed three more. The lawsuits come nearly four months after Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy reorganization, anticipated for months as a way to limit liability in the abuse cases by carving off assets of the more than 260 local scout councils. In documents filed in February, and subsequent statements, Boy Scouts of America has argued that the national organization should be the only entity required to cover financial settlements in the sexual abuse cases that landed the organization in a state of near financial collapse.
