Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 4, 2020 / 12:35 pm
The diocese of Buffalo is asking a federal court to halt all outstanding clergy sex abuse litigation against it as it navigates bankruptcy proceedings.
In a motion filed in federal bankruptcy court on Saturday, the diocese is seeking an injunction on the progress of all child sex abuse lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act (CVA). The diocese has been named in more than 250 such lawsuits.
Once the diocese filed for bankruptcy, all the CVA lawsuits in which it was named a defendant were moved into bankruptcy court and permanently stopped from moving forward.
However, its bankruptcy proceedings have only temporarily halted the CVA lawsuits against smaller entities named as co-respondents, such as parishes and parochial schools, which have not themselves declared bankruptcy. Such cases could be moved back into the state supreme court against the co-defendants at the end of bankruptcy proceedings, and the diocese is seeking a permanent injunction on litigating these cases in order to reach a "global resolution" for all cases.