Law360 and various news services had articles over the last two days regarding the Delaware Catholic Diocese filing for chapter 11 due to pending tort claims arising from priests molesting children. The Diocese is represented by Wilmington’s Young Conaway law firm, which has been involved in many of the asbestos chapter 11 cases as counsel for futures reps. Will we see a trust fund or just tort claim resolution ? Either way, this presents just the latest example of how chapter 11 is being used as just another to to resolve tort claims. Here are two key quotes from the Law360 article.
“Filing for Chapter 11 offers the best opportunity, given finite resources, to provide the fairest possible treatment of all victims of sexual abuse by priests of our diocese,” Bishop W. Francis Malooly of the Wilmington diocese said in a statement.
“Our hope is that Chapter 11 proceedings will enable us to fairly compensate all victims through a single process established by the bankruptcy court,” Malooly said.
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