Guest Blog: SNAP, Little-noticed award to victims may have big ramifications

By Barbara Dorris And David Clohessy
Hamiltand GriffRights
July 24, 2014

http://hamilton-griffin.com/guest-blog-snap-little-noticed-award-to-victims-may-have-big-ramifications/

Pictured: Mike Hunter of Kansas City, SNAP’s long-time local director. He was a plaintiff in the 2008 settlement in KC and is a plaintiff in the pending, novel “breach of contract” suit against Bishop Robert Finn.

“What’s the latest in the Catholic abuse crisis?”

If you ask people who follow the news closely they’d likely cite two high visibility happenings: The meeting between Pope Francis and six clergy sex abuse victims and the latest stunning revelations of cover ups in a Minnesota archdiocese.

But a month ago, another development – virtually unprecedented - took place with little public fanfare. Most people, we suspect, took a glance at the headlines about it and quickly moved on, assuming it was yet another settlement in a civil abuse lawsuit involving multiple victims.

That, however, is not the case.

In fact, it wasn’t a child sex abuse case at all. It was a “breach of contract” suit. We believe it’s one of just two in the US and the only successful one so far. We predict – and hope – there will be more like it.

An arbitrator has ordered Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn to pay $1.1 million to 42 victims of clergy sex crimes because he broke his pledges to improve how he deals with abuse cases.

As best we can tell, there’s never been a case like this in which victims have successfully held a bishop responsible in court for breaking the promises he made during a settlement. And the amount of this award is significant because it may well deter more Catholic officials from breaking the promises they make to victims.

Here, in a nutshell, is what transpired:

1. In 2008, 47 victims settled child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits against Finn and his diocese. As part of that deal, they insisted that Finn commit to 19 non-economic child safety measures.
2.  In 2011, 44 of those victims formally charged that Finn broke many of those child safety measures, in part by keeping two credibly accused predator priests in ministry (Fr. James Tierney and Fr. Shawn Ratigan) and by hiding suspicions and knowledge of child sex crimes from law enforcement.
3. In March 2014, an arbitrator – harshly criticizing Finn and his KC church colleagues – awarded $1.1 million to the victims. (Finn is trying to have the award nullified.)

The attorney for these brave and persistent victims, Rebecca Randles, has described the award as “ground-breaking.” She’s right.

Here’s why:

We suspect that hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims have reached settlements with Catholic officials that include child protection commitments. We suspect that many of them have not been closely monitored.

We hope the arbitrator’s award will prompt many victims and their attorneys to look hard at whether these pledges are being kept. If bishops are breaking their promises, we hope victims will file more suits like this.

We hope this will also prod more victims to push hard for child safety provisions when they’re discussing settlement possibilities. Catholic officials would rather just write a check. But many victims find it more healing when they are able to force Catholic officials to formally pledge to take real abuse prevention steps.

We fear, however, that the arbitrator’s outcome may make Catholic officials even more reluctant to agree to child safety measure when they settle abuse lawsuits.

(Randles has another similar case pending, charging that Jesuit officials settled an abuse case involving Fr. Daniel C. O’Connell, a former St. Louis University president, but reneged on their commitment to keep him away from students by subsequently letting him teach at two Catholic colleges and work at a Berlin parish.)

Finn’s a smart man with plenty of smart lawyers and public relations advisers. He voluntarily signed this contract with victims, pledging to take simple and reasonable steps to stop abuse and cover ups. Then, Finn repeatedly broke that contract. When he did, he rubbed even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of dozens of struggling men and women who had already been sexually violated as kids by priests and re-victimized by callous Catholic officials.

The courage and compassion of Kansas City abuse victims made this contract happen. Now, the courage and compassion of these victims are enforcing this contract. Again, we applaud them for pioneering a new approach to deterring wrongdoing by holding wrongdoers legally responsible for their wrongdoing, even if they are powerful prelates.