Scouts’ plan to exit bankruptcy deemed ‘woefully’ inadequate

Boy Scouts of America is proposing to pay roughly $220 million toward a trust to compensate tens of thousands of former members who say they were abused during their time as scouts, according to a statement from the committee that represents survivors in the case.

Another $300 million may come from a voluntary contribution from local councils, the Boy Scouts said in court documents filed Monday, but the local organizations have given no formal commitment.

The number is a fraction of the $1 billion of the organization’s estimated value, and a sliver of the value of its subsidiaries, including local councils as well as various trusts and endowments, which USA TODAY estimates could exceed $3.7 billion.

The proposal is part of a reorganization plan put forth by the nonprofit detailing how it intends to handle the massive child sex abuse case that’s threatening its existence — the largest ever involving a single national organization — and emerge as a viable entity.

It comes a little more than a year after Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Delaware. At the time, the organization said it faced 275 lawsuits in state and federal courts plus another 1,400 potential claims. Nearly 95,000 claims were filed by the November deadline set by the bankruptcy judge.

The proposed settlement would amount to about $6,000 per claimant, even after the total number of claims is reduced after duplicates are deleted and other reviews. That number assumes an even distribution among survivors and does not reflect issues related to statutes of limitations or specific acts of abuse.

Boy Scouts says it will put forth all unrestricted cash and investments above the $75 million it says it needs to continue operations. It also will contribute its art collection, which includes original Norman Rockwell pieces, as well as two facilities in Texas and its oil and gas interests, consisting of more than 1,000 properties in 17 states.

But the proposal may be dead on arrival. The survivors’ Torts Claimant

Committee (TCC) objects to the plan.

“As a fiduciary to all sexual abuse survivors, the TCC has thoroughly investigated the assets and liabilities of the BSA and its local councils,” the committee said in a statement, “and concluded that the BSA’s reorganization plan woefully fails to adequately compensate sexual abuse survivors or provide any enhanced systematic protections for future generations of Scouts.”

Gill Gayle, an abuse claimant who serves on the advisory board for the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice, which represents approximately 65,000 survivors in the bankruptcy, said it was only after juries began awarding survivors million-dollar verdicts that Scouts realized “the sum total of paying for their deeds exceeds their monetary value.”

Paul Mones, who tried a landmark case in 2010 that resulted in $19.9 million in damages, said that result should have been a wake-up call for the organization. Instead, he said, it is still trying to go back to business as usual.