Dozens of sex-abuse victims asked a bankruptcy judge on Monday to strike down the Boy Scouts of America’s reorganization plan, saying that the proposal deprives them of rights to collect insurance payments in the millions of dollars, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The victims, many of whom suffered at the hands of a single priest on the island of Guam, and the Archdiocese of Agana, which sponsored Boy Scouts activities on the island, are among the remaining parties still opposing the approval of the youth group’s $2.7 billion settlement. A trial held during the past four weeks over the Boy Scouts reorganization plan before Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein is expected to wrap up this week. If approved, the Boy Scouts’ plan would grant the archdiocese, as well as insurers Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Chubb Ltd.’s Century Indemnity Co., immunity from litigation over the abuses, without making additional payments to or obtaining consent from the Guam victims, according to a court filing by lawyers of the victims. Hartford and Century, combined, have agreed to contribute more than $1.6 billion of the funds toward the settlement with all Boy Scouts plaintiffs. The Guam archdiocese filed its own bankruptcy in 2019 over abuse claims related to Boy Scouts and church activities and is working on its own reorganization plan. While the Guam victims can still go after insurance policies covering the Archdiocese of Agana, the Boy Scouts plan would prevent them from pursuing those policies covering the archdiocese for abuses tied to scouting activities, they have argued in court papers.
