AS 10,000 CHILD SEX ABUSE SURVIVORS STUCK WAITING FOR JUSTICE, ADVOCATES CALL ON ATTORNEY GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE INSURERS
“If these insurers aren’t held accountable soon, it will mean that more and more child sexual abuse survivors will die before their cases are ever resolved.”
New York – Today, a coalition of survivors of childhood sexual abuse, their legal representatives, and advocates sent a letter to New York State Attorney General Letitia James, calling for an urgent investigation into CHUBB – the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer – for consumer fraud, violating New York insurance and business laws, and non-compliance with Department of Finance Services guidance around the Child Victims Act (CVA). Five years after passage of the CVA, thousands of survivors are still waiting for justice, while a single case has yet to go to trial in New York City. If insurers aren’t held accountable, it could mean that more survivors – many who are well into their 80’s – will die before seeing their cases resolved.
The letter comes as insurers across the state refuse to provide coverage for child sexual abuse cases under the CVA, including in cases involving religious institutions, schools, hospitals, and counties. CHUBB in particular is claiming that it doesn’t owe any obligation to survivors with cases against the Archdiocese of New York – a legal gambit that is built to protect the insurer’s profits while delaying and denying restitution for thousands.
The full text of the letter can be found below:
Dear Attorney General James,
Five years after passage of the Child Victims Act, 10,000 survivors of childhood sexual abuse are still waiting for justice. We believe you can use your power to help many of them.
We are a coalition of child sexual abuse survivors, legal representatives, and advocates writing to you about a critical matter that concerns justice and restitution for thousands of survivors of childhood sexual abuse. As we’ve expressed to you previously, insurance companies in New York State and across the country are openly defying both the spirit and letter of the Child Victims Act (CVA). If these insurers aren’t held accountable soon, it will mean that more and more child sexual abuse survivors will die before their cases are ever resolved.
Across New York, we’ve seen numerous examples of insurance companies refusing to provide coverage for child sexual abuse cases, including in hospitals, schools, counties, and religious institutions, in order to protect their profit margins at the expense of just compensation for survivors. The biggest offender, CHUBB, is engaging in a national and statewide insurance strategy to delay and deny claims in child sexual abuse cases in New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, and Baltimore, to name a few.
Why is CHUBB doing this? For them, it makes fiscal sense to delay and avoid paying CVA claims for as long as possible. Many childhood sexual abuse survivors are now in their 70’s and 80’s. Some survivors have died waiting for their cases to move forward, and if insurers like CHUBB are successful in delaying and denying justice any further, it will mean more will die before they see a shred of financial restitution.
For CHUBB, it’s a cold, hard calculation, meaning fewer and smaller claims to pay out at the end of the day and more interest to collect on their record profits in the meantime. This strategy is not only ethically dubious – but we believe it constitutes consumer fraud and is part of a broader conspiracy of insurance companies to avoid paying out claims to sexual abuse survivors across the country.
CHUBB is employing a legal strategy that is abusing the legal concept of “expected and intended” against its clients, arguing that they “expected and intended” for abuse to happen. They know that in the vast majority of cases, this is a legal burden that they could never clear, yet they are using it to claim that they don’t owe a single obligation to survivors with cases against the Archdiocese of New York – before a single case has even gone to trial.
CHUBB’s legal gambit demands immediate action, and it has never been more urgent for your office to investigate the insurer for:
- Consumer Fraud: By refusing to pay out claims in child sexual abuse cases, CHUBB defrauded consumers on the value of their insurance policies.
- Violating New York Insurance Law § 2601, and New York General Business Law § 349: These laws and regulations require insurers to act in good faith and to cooperate with insureds to ensure that sexual abuse victims may be fairly compensated. More specifically, insurers are prohibited from failing to attempt in good faith to “effectuate prompt, fair, and equitable settlements of insurance claims submitted in which liability has become reasonably clear.”
- Non-Compliance with DFS Circular Letter No. 11:CHUBB is refusing to adhere to DFS’ clear instructionsregarding CVA implementation, where DFS instructs insurers to cooperate fully with the Child Victims Act.
Childhood sexual abuse survivors are running out of places to turn to for help. Nearly 100 survivors have already written to the Department of Financial Services (DFS) demanding an investigation into CHUBB’s practices, and to enforce DFS guidance instructing insurers to cooperate fully with the CVA. Our coalition has gotten no response to date. The judicial system has equally proven a consistent inability to protect survivors, as evidenced by New York’s Court of Appeals recent decision to overturn Harvey Weinstein’s conviction, and the fact that five years after the passage of the CVA, not a single case has gone to trial in New York City, and merely a handful have gone to trial across the entire state.
You have the power to step in and investigate insurers like CHUBB to ensure they uphold their legal responsibilities to childhood sexual abuse survivors – and we are counting on your help. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We eagerly await your response and trust that you will use your power to help put an end to this painful chapter for thousands of New Yorkers.
Sincerely,
The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation
The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation (“CJCC”) is an independent alliance of survivors of child sex abuse, their representatives, and advocates seeking full restitution for survivors of child sex abuse. Among members of the coalition are attorneys James Marsh, Founding Partner at Marsh Law Firm, Jeff Herman, Founder of Herman Law Firm, and Hillary Nappi, Partner at Hach Rose Schirripa & Cheverie, who represent thousands of sexual abuse survivors in litigation against public and private entities.
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