The tragedies we endure as individuals and as a society, no matter how devastating or reprehensible, usually have a beginning, middle, and end. However, for those who have witnessed the ordeals of New York’s child sex abuse victims — and our battle for justice against predators and the institutions that shielded them — our plight appears to be a never-ending saga of lifelong wounds that will never heal.
Beyond the usual suspects, who are the new perpetrators on the block, inflicting new injuries on victims who were sexually assaulted as children? Look no further than the insurance industry.
After the Child Victims Act (CVA) was passed in 2019, survivors, their families, and advocates believed they saw light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, claimants would have their day in court, holding the guilty accountable after decades of horrific crimes and cover-up.
But, that hoped-for resolution is not how this story is playing out, except for a small number of mostly adult survivors. The most notable is E. Jean Carroll, who sued former President Donald Trump, thanks to the CVA’s successor bill, the Adult Survivors Act. Carroll won her civil suit against Trump, whose $91.6 million bond was backed by the $30 billion insurance giant CHUBB.
To the horror of survivors (myself included), especially those assaulted in the New York Archdiocese, CHUBB is exploiting victims further by suing to make a blanket denial of payment for any possible claim against the Archdiocese before a single case has even been adjudicated. The appellate division of the New York Supreme Court has allowed CHUBB’s case to move forward — putting CVA claims for thousands of survivors at risk.
CHUBB’s CEO, Evan Greenberg, and board of directors believe it’s perfectly legal and moral to protect their billions in profits by refusing to recognize the claims of victims, yet have no qualms about providing a lifeline to a former president found liable for sexually assaulting a woman in a dressing room. This, too, is an old story of what happens when the world’s most powerful institutions are allowed to operate without accountability.
CHUBB is not the only insurer using egregious legal maneuvers to stop the process of justice, but they are setting the standard for the insurance industry by evading the intent of the Child Victims Act.
If insurers like CHUBB refuse to comply with the CVA, then it’s time for the state attorney general to step in with an investigation to hold them accountable. Survivors aren’t getting any younger — and the insurance industry knows that every year they waste in court, more of us will die — meaning less claims to pay out in the future.
I have written previously about my multiple years of abuse in the Brooklyn Diocese, only to state once more that as a boy of 10, 11, 12, and 13, I did not have the adult capacity to say “No.”
Like other children who were fondled, molested, sodomized, and raped in more banal settings — from classrooms, closets, and city parks, to locker rooms and under the Boardwalk at Coney Island — I’m still waiting along with thousands of other victims, five years after the CVA was passed, for the opportunity to testify in court. That was never the intent of the CVA.
Last month, I attended a hearing in CHUBB’s case attempting to deny payment for CVA claims. After the hearing, I watched a phalanx of CHUBB attorneys in the lobby smiling and congratulating themselves on the immoral argument their colleague had just delivered to the panel of judges. Surely there are mothers and fathers among them, I thought. What actions might they take had it been their daughters and sons who were assaulted?
Mr. Greenberg, the Archdiocese is not the only party that deserves blame and shame for not using their attorneys, their financial resources, and their souls to bring a speedy end to this grotesque cruelty inflicted on child victims.
With your annual compensation of $25 million, your stock and options worth more than a quarter of a billion, and CHUBB’s record quarterly earnings of more than $3 billion, you and members of the CHUBB board are in a position to help ensure justice for child victims — rather than standing in the way. Otherwise, your name and CHUBB’s will go down in history for standing on the side of sexual predators and the institutions that gave them safe harbor.
I pray instead that you stop your wasteful legal squabbling and get down to the moral business of just, compassionate compensation for victims. That is what New Yorkers are waiting for and that’s why we passed the Child Victims Act.
Jimenez is an award-winning journalist and serves on the board of CHILD USAdvocacy.