The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation wants the insurance industry to start paying claims under the Child Victims Act. |
Time is not on their side. Five years after the state Legislature passed the Child Victims Act into law, hundreds of victims are still waiting for compensation decades after being abused. The act, which gave victims a “look-back” window for abuse survivors to file civil claims, was a unique opportunity to extend the timeline for survivors to pursue justice. But the clock is ticking now, as child sex abuse victims — many of whom are now in their 70s and 80s — want justice for abuse endured in their earliest years. “The idea was to give survivors their day in court and to give them justice quickly,” said Hillary Nappi, an attorney representing the victims and a member of The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation , an advocacy group for survivors of child sexual abuse. “That has not happened on any level,” she said. Standing in the way of compensation, however, aren’t the parties responsible for the abuse — the schools, hospitals, churches, Boy Scout summer camps and other locations where the crimes occurred — but their insurance carriers, survivors say. For years now, survivors have been battling with insurance companies that have been avoiding compensating victims, survivors allege. In total, victims of sexual abuse are awaiting at least $1 billion in outstanding claims from insurers in New York, the coalition said. The focus is particularly on the insurer CHUBB, which is handling many of the cases and has faced $859 million in molestation coverage claims. “CHUBB's actions are not merely bad faith; they are a deliberate and unconscionable campaign to deprive childhood sexual abuse survivors of justice,” the coalition said in a letter addressed to Attorney General Tish James and shared first with Playbook. The group says the state’s Department of Financial Services is not properly enforcing their own guidelines on the insurance carriers, and it believes James’ office should intervene and launch an investigation into CHUBB — which is also an insurer for the Archdiocese of New York — and the entire insurance industry. “It is reflective of a larger business strategy being deployed throughout the United States to force insureds into bankruptcy and reduce its obligations to pay on claims up to its policy limits,” the letter reads. During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers and advocates are hoping to make the Child Victims Act permanent and end the statute of limitations for most childhood sexual abuse claims. Meanwhile, victims are still awaiting their compensation. In a statement to POLITICO, CHUBB refuted the coalition’s claims that the insurance company was the one responsible for payment delays. “The victims of sexual abuse were harmed by the actions of the Archdiocese of New York and its clergy and laity,” the company said. “The Archdiocese of New York is trying to shift financial responsibility for claims of sexual abuse to insurers, but insurance doesn’t work that way. Even for a powerful Archdiocese, insurance covers accidents, not conduct that was perpetrated, tolerated, or hidden.” Still, some victims said the delays should stop. “Insurance giants care more about their own bottom line than coming to the table in good faith to negotiate with survivors,” said Julie Troy, who was a victim of sexual abuse when she was a child at a Westchester preschool three decades ago, in a statement to Playbook. “They should be held accountable — just like institutions who protected our abusers are now having to account.”
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