The Boy Scouts of America reached settlements totaling more than $1 billion with insurers and two of the three main groups representing abuse victims, a mediator said in a court filing.
Under the deal, Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. and three other insurers will contribute $787 million to a trust fund for victims, retired bankruptcy judge Kevin J. Carey said in a court filing Tuesday. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has run scouting programs for decades, will pay $250 million, Carey said.
A committee representing victims who will file claims in the future and the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice both agreed to back the settlement, Carey said.
The third major victim group, the Official Tort Claimants’ Committee, opposes the proposed deal, the panel said in a statement published by its lawyers.
“As each month passes in this bankruptcy case, the Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy becomes less about the survivors and more about how the Boy Scouts will exit bankruptcy at the expense of survivors,” Doug Kennedy, vice chair of the TCC, said in the statement.
The Boy Scouts organization, based in Irving, Texas, sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, halting hundreds of lawsuits and creating a compensation fund for people who were molested in their youth decades ago by scoutmasters or other Boy Scout leaders.
Since then more than 80,000 claims have been filed related to alleged abuse. The organization and its local councils have already pledged to contribute about $820 million to the victim trust fund.
The deal replaces an earlier agreement that the Boy Scouts struck with Hartford in April.
The case is In re Boy Scouts of America, 20-10343 U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
