A law firm representing alleged sexual abuse victims in California is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, claiming the diocese fraudulently moved around real estate assets in an attempt to hide its wealth and avoid paying child sex abuse claims.
The suit, filed Tuesday (Feb. 21) by the Zalkin Law Firm in San Diego County Superior Court on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs, alleges that the diocese transferred at least 291 real estate parcels, with a total tax-assessed value of more than $453 million, to parish corporations in order to defraud creditors at a time when the diocese was aware of “significant claims” by victims of childhood sex abuse.
These transfers, according to the lawsuit, “were done as part of a scheme created, masterminded, and designed” by the diocese and parishes so assets could not be “reachable” by creditors and those filing claims.
The lawsuit claims that the diocese made these transfers beginning in September 2019, the same month the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 218, which, with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s endorsement, lifted a statute of limitation on childhood sex abuse claims. The law opened a three-year window beginning in 2020 that allowed alleged victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits without age limitations.
The suit comes days after Cardinal Robert McElroy, bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, announced that the diocese may declare bankruptcy as it faces “staggering” legal costs in dealing with hundreds of lawsuits alleging priests and others sexually abused children.
Kevin Eckery, spokesman for the diocese, defended the transfers, saying they predate the Assembly bill. “Under canon law the assets of each parish have been separate and independent from the Diocese,” Eckery said. “Over 10 years ago, long before Assembly Bill 218 was introduced, the Diocese began the process of formalizing in civil law the separate legal status of each parish and its assets. This included recording proper legal title for each parish to its own real estate….“
Full story at Religious News Service.
Right on! Good for the diocese of San Diego. Everyone knows most of the money from the clergy sex abuse settlements goes to the lawyers and not to the victims. Those greedy lawyers want more…more…and more.
i just hope the shell game played with the
diocese real property did not increase the
carbon footprint of the diocese – that’s the main thing!
Predator priests are reprehensible and I’m not a fan of the Diocese of San Diego. That said, a few attorneys demand to know the net worth of the church’s financial assets. Try finding out how much they make off of these multi-million dollars settlements. Most California personal injury lawyers set their contingency fees at approximately 33 percent (or a third of the total settlement awarded). However, this percentage can change. Sometimes, the fee could be half the California personal injury settlement award. How much have Jeff Anderson and Irwin Zalkin made from abuse victims? These are not altruistic pro bono attorneys simply seeking justice. Zalkin already won a $198-million settlement of sexual abuse claims against the diocese in 2007, according to the LA Times. When lawyers got $79 million for that, why wouldn’t they keep going back for more?
This isn’t even noting their income from multi-million dollar settlements from the Boy Scouts or the Jehovah’s Witnesses that Zalkin has profited from.
There’s no excuse for perverts and those covering up for them should pay heavily. Yet, these attorneys are not angels.
The destruction to millions of young souls, by evil clergy sex predators, is incalculable. God has a terrible “reward” waiting for those who committed these horrific sex crimes, and those who evilly covered-up those terrible crimes. And how many left the Church, or lost faith in God, or stopped giving any money to the Church, because of the horrifying catastrophe of clerical sex abuse crimes, worldwide? So many young lives– and their families– were irreparably broken and damaged, and many young victims of clerical sex abuse crimes, who could not function any more, gave up and committed suicide. It is a big scare, and the trust of millions of Catholics has been tragically, fatally undermined and broken. All the money in the world cannot possibly repair these extremely serious damages. Many Catholic families whose youngsters were evilly raped by their parish priests, knew and trusted these priests, and invited them often to their homes for dinner. They were good parishioners, and had no idea in the world, that the Devil was lurking behind their parish priests’ Roman collars– ready to Satanically destroy the lives of their poor, innocent children– often right in the sanctity of their own family homes.