Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

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Dr Moore
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

Post by Dr Moore »

Res Ipsa wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 4:31 am
I agree. The scope of the release should reflect the price. And I think the judge's opinion that $250M was reasonable for a scout-activity was sensible. I don't get the impression from the opinion that the judge thought the church was trying to sneak something past her. There's an army of lawyers on this bankruptcy flyspecking everything, so I doubt the church thought they were getting away with anything. They just didn't throw enough into the kitty for what they asked for.
As a value play, this strategy makes sense. Pay the least to get the most. However, as it involves unnamed abuse victims who may have nothing to do with scouting, it is surprising and if I may say, more than a little bit slimy. I do believe members of the Q15 were briefed on this legal strategy, and that at least one person with authority to authorize will have signed off on the language involving coverage of abuse claims involving all YM and leaders.
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

Post by BeNotDeceived »

The LDS 'church' will do anything to avoid doing the right thing or being honorable in any litigation it is faced with and it will do anything to maximize financial gain in any settlement. The boys over at K&M are ravening wolves. This real estate corporation masquerading as a religion hung the BSA out to dry at the advice of their legal dept. knowing full well that a sexual abuse class action lawsuit was coming down the pike and so wanted to have the option of claiming 3rd party involvement to lessen the financial impact the suit would have on them financially when the vast majority of the abusers were LDS members. Honesty and integrity at its finest. Isn't there a primary song that goes 'do what is right, let the consequence follow'? The 'church' should probably be on the hook for at least 60-70% of that $2.7 billion, not a mere measly $250 million. The more you learn and observe about and how the LDS 'church' operates, the more it becomes clear just how corrupt it really is.
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

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Dr Moore wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:43 pm
Res Ipsa wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 4:31 am
I agree. The scope of the release should reflect the price. And I think the judge's opinion that $250M was reasonable for a scout-activity was sensible. I don't get the impression from the opinion that the judge thought the church was trying to sneak something past her. There's an army of lawyers on this bankruptcy flyspecking everything, so I doubt the church thought they were getting away with anything. They just didn't throw enough into the kitty for what they asked for.
As a value play, this strategy makes sense. Pay the least to get the most. However, as it involves unnamed abuse victims who may have nothing to do with scouting, it is surprising and if I may say, more than a little bit slimy. I do believe members of the Q15 were briefed on this legal strategy, and that at least one person with authority to authorize will have signed off on the language involving coverage of abuse claims involving all YM and leaders.
I don’t the proposed release would have applied to unnamed abuse victims with no scouting related abuse. The legal proceeding is the BSA’s bankruptcy proceeding (reorganization, not liquidation). The relevant pool of claimants is known — they all filed claims in the bankruptcy and they all alleged scouting related claims. The issue with the scope of the release involves known victims whose participated in LDS sponsored troops and allied being abused by the same perpetrator (s) in both scouting and non-scouting contexts. The bankruptcy court has no jurisdiction over abuse claims against the LDS Church that are completely unrelated to scouting.
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

Post by Dr Moore »

Res Ipsa wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:00 pm
Dr Moore wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:43 pm


As a value play, this strategy makes sense. Pay the least to get the most. However, as it involves unnamed abuse victims who may have nothing to do with scouting, it is surprising and if I may say, more than a little bit slimy. I do believe members of the Q15 were briefed on this legal strategy, and that at least one person with authority to authorize will have signed off on the language involving coverage of abuse claims involving all YM and leaders.
I don’t the proposed release would have applied to unnamed abuse victims with no scouting related abuse. The legal proceeding is the BSA’s bankruptcy proceeding (reorganization, not liquidation). The relevant pool of claimants is known — they all filed claims in the bankruptcy and they all alleged scouting related claims. The issue with the scope of the release involves known victims whose participated in LDS sponsored troops and allied being abused by the same perpetrator (s) in both scouting and non-scouting contexts. The bankruptcy court has no jurisdiction over abuse claims against the LDS Church that are completely unrelated to scouting.
Ah, so in no way does it cover unknown future claimants? As every US ward had some scouting affiliation, I imagine every future abuse accusation involving YM would de facto have some scouting angle, no? Or the church seems to have wanted to make that argument in this case. In any event I defer to your expertise and, candidly, you being the only one of us who has bothered reading the judgment with a trained legal mind. I see the complexity involved explains the book length page decision.
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

Post by Res Ipsa »

Dr Moore wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:12 pm
Res Ipsa wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:00 pm


I don’t the proposed release would have applied to unnamed abuse victims with no scouting related abuse. The legal proceeding is the BSA’s bankruptcy proceeding (reorganization, not liquidation). The relevant pool of claimants is known — they all filed claims in the bankruptcy and they all alleged scouting related claims. The issue with the scope of the release involves known victims whose participated in LDS sponsored troops and allied being abused by the same perpetrator (s) in both scouting and non-scouting contexts. The bankruptcy court has no jurisdiction over abuse claims against the LDS Church that are completely unrelated to scouting.
Ah, so in no way does it cover unknown future claimants? As every US ward had some scouting affiliation, I imagine every future abuse accusation involving YM would de facto have some scouting angle, no? Or the church seems to have wanted to make that argument in this case. In any event I defer to your expertise and, candidly, you being the only one of us who has bothered reading the judgment with a trained legal mind. I see the complexity involved explains the book length page decision.
It’s complicated as hell. Let’s say you had a YM leader who was a scoutmaster. (I have no idea if this was how things were really organized.) If that YM leader abused a boy who was a member of the troop, but only at the church while sacrament meetings were held, the fact that the YM leader was also a scoutmaster would not be sufficient, in and of itself, to make it a scouting related claim. That claim would likely be unaffected by the bankruptcy or any kind of settlement in the bankruptcy. There has to be some sufficient causal connection between scouting and the abuse, otherwise they would be no claim against BSA.

Any release would not apply to future abuse. BSA will get a discharge in bankruptcy, which means those who failed to file claims in the bankruptcy for past abuse will be barred from suing BSA for the past abuse. But that has nothing to do with the LDS Church — it won’t receive a discharge. So, whatever the release ends up being, I think it can apply only to claims that were filed in the BSA bankruptcy. I’ll double check when I get a chance, as I’m not a bankruptcy lawyer.
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

Post by IHAQ »

A judge threw out a $250 million settlement the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agreed to pay into a fund for abused former Boy Scouts. She argued the agreement gave the church too much protection against further lawsuits.
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-c ... t-rejected

Church lawyers who are privy to just how many potential law suits are out there have tried to slip in cast-iron protections against future law suits. On the one hand, that’s their job. On the other hand, is it what Jesus would do?
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Re: Boy Scouts Ruling Threatens $250 Million Abuse Deal With Mormons

Post by Philo Sofee »

IHAQ wrote:
Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:42 am
A judge threw out a $250 million settlement the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agreed to pay into a fund for abused former Boy Scouts. She argued the agreement gave the church too much protection against further lawsuits.
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-c ... t-rejected

Church lawyers who are privy to just how many potential law suits are out there have tried to slip in cast-iron protections against future law suits. On the one hand, that’s their job. On the other hand, is it what Jesus would do?
It's as if they have interpreted Jesus' statement that whoever abuses a child it would be better if they had never been born to actually mean children are there for the taking, it's all O.K., I don't really value them anymore than you do except as things to use.
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