EDITOR’S NOTE: A lawsuit solely represents one aspect of a narrative.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed an attraction in federal court docket Thursday after a choose dominated towards the group earlier this month, in accordance with paperwork.
The 2021 lawsuit is between the church and its insurance coverage corporations, Nationwide Union Insurance coverage and ACE Property & Casualty Co., and pertains to a dispute over whether or not the insurance coverage corporations are required to pay the group’s settlement funds.
PREVIOUS STORY: LDS Church loses lawsuit over payment of sexual abuse settlements
The dispute started after the church settled a high-profile sex abuse lawsuit in West Virginia and the insurance coverage corporations refused to pay the settlement prices. The church claimed the insurance coverage corporations had been required beneath contract to make the funds and sued them in Salt Lake Metropolis’s federal court docket.
On April 6, the court docket ruled against the church, saying the businesses didn’t breach their contract as they “didn’t owe the church an obligation to defend or indemnify beneath any implicated coverage.”
Courtroom paperwork present the church is now interesting the ruling via the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Colorado.
The unique West Virginia intercourse abuse lawsuit was filed by a number of members of the church who accused the group of not defending youngsters from sexual abuse.
The go well with claims the church was negligent for failing to report an affordable suspicion that church member Michael Jensen was abusing youngsters. The go well with additionally claimed the church failed to contemplate his historical past of kid sexual abuse allegations when “holding out Mr. Jensen’s babysitting providers for Church households,” in accordance with paperwork and the Related Press.
Jensen was convicted of abusing two of the youngsters and was sentenced to 35 to 75 years in jail, and in 2018, each side of the civil lawsuit reached a settlement settlement. On the time, legal professionals for the church allegedly stated it was the biggest settlement ever paid by the group to sexual abuse victims.
Within the newest go well with, the church claims the insurance coverage corporations are “obligated to defend and indemnify the Church towards the Underlying Lawsuit and should pay the Church the whole quantity of its settlement and protection prices,” the grievance reads.
Attorneys on each side argued over the contract, presenting totally different interpretations of the settlement. Finally, the court docket sided with the insurance coverage corporations, resulting in the attraction.
ABC4 reached out to the church for an announcement and a spokesperson stated they’d not be commenting outdoors of what legal professionals have already written in paperwork.
Ryan Bittan, Matthew Drachman, and the Related Press contributed to this reporting.
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