The Buffalo (N.Y.) Catholic Diocese has an unlikely ally in federal bankruptcy court against a Buffalo law firm that is representing 36 plaintiffs with child sex abuse lawsuits pending in state court, the Buffalo News reported. The unsecured creditors' committee, which consists of seven people with child sex abuse claims and has been at odds with the diocese in past issues, is supporting the diocese's efforts to stop the Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria law firm from pushing forward with state court litigation while its chapter 11 bankruptcy case continues. Since 2019, more than 450 Child Victims Act lawsuits have been filed in state courts against the diocese, parishes and other Catholic entities in Western New York. The cases against the diocese were automatically stayed under bankruptcy law provisions. Separately incorporated parishes and other Catholic entities, such as schools and religious orders, do not receive the automatic stay protection afforded to the diocese. Nonetheless, diocese lawyers have been asking the court to extend those protections to more than 400 area Catholic parishes, schools and other entities. They maintain that allowing cases against parishes and schools to go forward will inevitably entangle the diocese in costly litigation, draining assets that otherwise would be used in settling with abuse victims. Early in the bankruptcy, lawyers for the unsecured creditors’ committee joined some CVA plaintiffs’ attorneys in objecting to a proposed bankruptcy court order that would bar cases against parishes from proceeding in state courts. Ultimately, the committee brokered a deal with the diocese. The diocese agreed to turn over tens of thousands of pages of internal documents, including financial reports and clergy abuse files, in exchange for stay protections for parishes and other Catholic entities. Plaintiffs’ attorneys quietly have gone along with the deal, except for the Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria firm, which continues to mount an aggressive effort to have its plaintiffs’ cases heard in state courts.
