Court Affirms Boy Scout Bankruptcy Plan

The bankruptcy stems from a 2010 verdict against the Boy Scouts in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

LOYAL: The Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Texas. (Courtesy of Vermillion Films)
By Nigel Jaquiss

On March 28, Judge Richard Andrews of the U.S. District Court in Delaware affirmed the bankruptcy plan of the Boy Scouts of America.

The judge’s ruling means the 82,000 men who filed sexual abuse claims against the BSA are one step closer to payouts that could range from $3,500 to more than $2 million in the most severe cases.

The bankruptcy, filed in February 2020 by the Boy Scouts’ national organization, stems from a 2010 verdict against the BSA in Multnomah County Circuit Court, which led to the release of thousands of secret files detailing abuse in scouting.

Crew Janci LLP, the successor to O’Donnell, Clark, & Crew, the Portland law firm that won the 2010 case, also represents more than 380 abuse survivors in the bankruptcy case, many of them from Oregon. The $2.5 billion total award in the bankruptcy, the largest ever for a youth-serving nonprofit, could grow substantially as additional insurers settle.

Steve Crew, one of the lawyers in the case, cheered the ruling.

“This is the best result for the most people given all the difficult circumstances there are in this case,” Crew says. “It gives survivors some closure.”

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