An advocacy group for survivors of child sex abuse is urging New York’s financial regulator to investigate insurer Chubb Ltd. for allegedly failing to comply with the state’s Child Victims Act.
The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation has asked the New York State Department of Financial Services to look into Chubb and its policies for what the group claims is the insurer’s resistance to covering damages related to the CVA. This request was made in a letter on Friday, as Chubb subsidiaries are battling the Archdiocese of New York in state court over the extent of their coverage obligations for abuse claims.
“It is a cynical but tried and true practice of some in the insurance industry to delay, deny, and defend,” the letter stated. “Chubb knows that every month spent in litigation, another survivor dies, lessening their potential liability.”
Lawsuits stemming from New York’s CVA have led six of the state’s eight regional Catholic dioceses into bankruptcy, worsening conflicts with insurers as the dioceses seek coverage for the abuse claims. The archdiocese has not sought bankruptcy protection.
Chubb and the DFS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The Chubb insurers sued the New York Archdiocese in June, arguing that their insurance policies do not require coverage for injuries that were expected, intended, or not accidental due to the archdiocese officials possibly knowing about clergy member abuse for decades.
The New York Archdiocese, which is one of the country’s largest by Catholic population, has been named as a defendant in an estimated 3,000 lawsuits related to the CVA, according to Chubb’s court papers.
The coalition’s letter stated, “The precedent that Chubb is seeking to establish here will have profound impacts on claims far beyond those involving the Archdiocese,” and called on the Department of Financial Services to hold Chubb accountable.
‘Seeks to Welch’
The archdiocese filed a motion to dismiss Chubb’s lawsuit, claiming that the insurer “seeks to welch on its decades-long contractual promises to defend and pay thousands of survivor claims.”
The coalition’s letter also mentioned Chubb’s resistance to coverages in other areas of the country, including a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The New York Archdiocese has already settled over 100 cases and aims to settle more, but they need Chubb to fulfill its insurance obligation, according to the group.
The group echoed the archdiocese’s arguments, stating that Chubb must fulfill its insurance obligation considering the millions of dollars in premiums the archdiocese has paid over the years.
The Child Victims Act was signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in February 2019, extending the time for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil suits and reopening the statute of limitations for legal claims for a one-year window beginning on Aug. 14, 2019. In September 2019, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a letter stating it expected insurers “to cooperate fully with the intent of the Child Victims Act.”