LDS Church files appeal after court sides with opposition in sex abuse settlement lawsuit
EDITOR’S NOTE: A lawsuit only represents one side of a story.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed an appeal in federal court Thursday after a judge ruled against the organization earlier this month, according to documents.
The 2021 lawsuit is between the church and its insurance companies, National Union Insurance and ACE Property & Casualty Co., and pertains to a dispute over whether the insurance companies are required to pay the organization’s settlement payments.
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The dispute began after the church settled a high-profile sex abuse lawsuit in West Virginia and the insurance companies refused to pay the settlement costs. The church claimed the insurance companies were required under contract to make the payments and sued them in Salt Lake City’s federal court.
On April 6, the court ruled against the church, saying the companies did not breach their contract as they “did not owe the church a duty to defend or indemnify under any implicated policy.”
Court documents show the church is now appealing the ruling through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Colorado.
The original West Virginia sex abuse lawsuit was filed by several members of the church who accused the organization of not protecting children from sexual abuse.
The suit claims the church was negligent for failing to report a reasonable suspicion that church member Michael Jensen was abusing children. The suit also claimed the church failed to consider his history of child sexual abuse allegations when “holding out Mr. Jensen’s babysitting services for Church families,” according to documents and the Associated Press.
Jensen was convicted of abusing two of the children and was sentenced to 35 to 75 years in prison, and in 2018, both sides of the civil lawsuit reached a settlement agreement. At the time, lawyers for the church allegedly said it was the largest settlement ever paid by the organization to sexual abuse victims.
In the latest suit, the church claims the insurance companies are “obligated to defend and indemnify the Church against the Underlying Lawsuit and must pay the Church the entire amount of its settlement and defense costs,” the complaint reads.
Attorneys on both sides argued over the contract, presenting different interpretations of the agreement. Ultimately, the court sided with the insurance companies, leading to the appeal.
ABC4 reached out to the church for a statement and a spokesperson said they would not be commenting outside of what lawyers have already written in documents.
Ryan Bittan, Matthew Drachman, and the Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
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