Boy Scouts’ future uncertain after bankruptcy filing
The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday to try to work out a potentially massive victim-compensation plan that will allow the 110year-old organization to carry on in the wake of hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits against it.
The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del., marks the beginning of what could be one of the largest, most complex bankruptcies in U.S. history, as scores of lawyers seek settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested as scouts by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in their states’ statute-of-limitations laws.
The Scouts can put those lawsuits on hold for now by filing for bankruptcy, but they could be forced to sell off some of their vast property holdings, including campgrounds and hiking trails, to raise money for a compensation trust fund that could surpass $1 billion.
“Scouting programs … will continue throughout this process and for many years to come,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement. “Local councils … have not filed for bankruptcy.”
Most of the newly surfacing cases date to the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts have kept confidential files since the 1920s listing staff and volunteers implicated in sexual abuse, for the avowed purpose of keeping predators away from youth. As of January, the files listed 7,819 suspected abusers and 12,254 victims, according to a court deposition.
Until last spring, the organization had insisted it never knowingly allowed a predator to work with youths. But in May, The Associated Press reported that attorneys for abuse victims had identified multiple cases in which known predators were allowed to return to leadership posts. The next day, Boy Scouts chief executive Mike Surbaugh wrote to a congressional committee, acknowledging the group’s previous claim was untrue.
“The bankruptcy filing will allow victims to gain validation through financial compensation and an opportunity to gain access to the complete ‘perversion files’ in the possession of the Boy Scouts,” said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who has represented dozens of former scouts.