A court-appointed master commissioner has awarded additional money to 23 victims of sexual abuse who had appealed their original share of a $25.7 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Louisville.
Nick King, a retired Kentucky Supreme Court justice, approved additional payments of between $4,500 and $55,750.
Attorney William McMurry, who represented the plaintiffs in settlement talks with the Roman Catholic archdiocese last June, said the appeals mark "the last chapter" in the nearly two-year legal case.
The additional payments totaled $500,000 and come on top of $25.2 million awarded late last year by another court-appointed commissioner. Most plaintiffs are paying 40 percent of their awards in attorney's fees.
The funds came from the settlement among the Archdiocese of Louisville and 243 plaintiffs who sued over sexual abuse by priests and others associated with the church over the past half-century. The settlement is the third-highest ever reached between a diocese and victims.
Under terms of the settlement, the archdiocese had no role in deciding how much money each plaintiff received. Jefferson Circuit Judge James M. Shake appointed Cincinnati lawyer Matt Garretson as commissioner to make those decisions.
Garretson used a system in which victims were placed into one of three categories, based on how severely they were abused. Other factors, such as a person's age at the time of abuse and the number of times the abuse occurred, were then used to adjust the award within those classes.
King — appointed by Shake to hear appeals of Garretson's decisions — said yesterday he refused requests by seven appellants to place them in a category of more severe abuse than the ones Garretson had assigned.
But individual circumstances warranted some increase in all the appeals, said King, who interviewed victims, read case files and talked with Garretson about his rationale for the original awards.
"Each of these 23 people who appealed had a compelling reason why their award should be increased," King said.
The awards were less than some had sought, he added, but "there was a finite amount of money to apply to an infinite amount of grief."
Reviewing the records and hearing victims' testimony was "emotionally tumultuous," King said. "The crimes that were inflicted on these people were horrendous, and the consequences of those crimes should bring tears to a stone."
Garretson said yesterday he was pleased with how well the process worked, saying the three-tier system worked in the vast majority of cases.
The appeals process "allowed the people who truly fell outside the groupings within the plan to get individualized and personalized treatment," he said. "Any time you go through 243 cases, you'll find criteria you never anticipated."
King waived the $500 fee he was authorized to receive from each victim who appealed, giving each one a choice of receiving the $500 or donating it to an organization working on behalf of sexually abused children.
McMurry said he believed the 23 who appealed "are quite happy that Nick heard their case and appreciated the unique circumstances of their abuse and that he acknowledged that they were legitimate victims who were deserving of additional consideration."
He said he did not believe the other plaintiffs regretted not appealing. "Those that did not appeal were ready put this behind them," he said.
With the appeals process over, the entire amount of the settlement has been disbursed, King and Garretson said.
Before the final appeals, the median payment was $85,557, with amounts ranging from $20,000 to $163,052, before lawyer's fees. A median is the point at which half the payments are larger and half smaller. After the appeal, the most any plaintiff received in total was $218,801, McMurry said.
According to figures provided by McMurry's office:
- One of those appealing was in the first category — which included those subjected to sexual comments, lewd behavior, non-genital touching and victims who were adults at the time of the abuse — and received an additional $4,500.
- Seventeen were in the second category — indicating they were subjected to fondling and genital touching — and received between $11,500 and $18,723 in additional funds.
- Five were in the third category, having suffered from rape, sodomy or digital penetration, with three receiving an additional $40,250 and two an additional $55,750.
The figures do not say how much each individual had originally received.
Garretson originally divided the settlement as follows:
- Six plaintiffs were in the first category. Awards in that category were between $20,000 and $30,000.
- An additional 160 people constituted the middle category and were awarded amounts ranging from $70,700 to $91,500.
- Seventy-seven people formed the third category. They received between $141,317 and $163,052.
McMurry and his legal team received roughly $9 million, or 40 percent of the awards given the 217 plaintiffs he represented directly or who had filed suits on their own behalf. McMurry's group also received $1,000 each for negotiating on behalf of the other 26 plaintiffs, who had different lawyers who also received varying percentages of the awards.
The case began in April 2002 with the first of more than 250 lawsuits alleging the archdiocese had covered up abuse by priests. Most plaintiffs have now settled; two cases have been dismissed and a handful remain pending.
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