BishopAccountability.org
	Victim Seeks Lien on Church Property By Kevin O'Connor Rutland Herald May 16, 2008 http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080516/NEWS04/805160339 The winner of an $8.7 million jury verdict against Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese has asked a court to place a lien on the bishop's Burlington office building to ensure the judgment is paid. A lawyer for Perry Babel has filed papers in Chittenden Superior Court seeking a writ of attachment on the diocese's headquarters at 351 North Ave., a historic brick building on land overlooking Lake Champlain that Burlington municipal records values at $11,059,400. If successful, the 40-year-old Burlington native — who won a state-record award Tuesday in a priest misconduct lawsuit — wouldn't receive the church property but instead a legal claim on it if Vermont's largest religious denomination can't otherwise pay the court judgment. Babel isn't the first man that the church must pay to resolve such a case. Two years ago, the diocese agreed to pay a then-record $965,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Michael Gay, a South Burlington man who, like Babel, filed charges of negligence after the former Rev. Edward Paquette sexually abused the two as children. Back in 2006, the diocese quickly responded by quietly placing each of its more than 120 local parishes in separate charitable trusts. "In such litigious times, it would be a gross act of mismanagement if I did not do everything possible to protect our parishes and the interests of the faithful from unbridled, unjust and terribly unreasonable assault," Bishop Salvatore Matano wrote the state's 118,000 Catholics in a May 2006 letter. The diocese doesn't have insurance for priest misconduct, but says it held a comprehensive liability policy with the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. from 1972 to 1978. The church can't find its copy of the policy, however, so it has taken the insurer to court in hopes the company will unearth the paperwork and pay for the costs to deal with sexual abuse lawsuits. The insurer, now part of the St. Paul Travelers Companies, has agreed to pay the diocese's legal fees for all pending cases whose allegations took place during the policy period. But the insurer says it shouldn't have to cover costs if it can prove the church knew of past misconduct but continued to employ an offending priest. U.S. District Court in Burlington has yet to rule on the insurance case. In his call for a lien, lawyer Jerome O'Neill said the diocese had "no liability insurance, bond, or other security known or reasonably believed to be available to satisfy a judgment." Because the church is appealing the verdict to the Vermont Supreme Court, O'Neill said an eventual payout "likely will take in excess of 18 months." As a result, he figured his client, adding 12 percent interest as called for by law, would be owed $10,266,000. The diocese has spent six years and more than $1.57 million to resolve at least eight civil lawsuits alleging clergy misconduct. Even so, it still must tackle 24 more involving nine past priests. Of those pending cases, 17 involve Paquette. Church lawyers declined to comment Thursday on the call for a lien. But church leaders have stressed they aren't paying court costs with regular collection money or the diocesan Bishop's Fund but instead through loans and separate accounts designed for unforeseen circumstances. Contact Kevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.
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