Franciscan Friars of California file for bankruptcy
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Survivors of childhood clergy sex abuse have suffered a legal setback following a December 31, 2023 bankruptcy filing by the Franciscan Friars of California, as it faced nearly 100 lawsuits related to decades-old sex abuse claims.
The announcement was made yesterday. Five of those cases are being handled in Santa Barbara by attorney Tim Hale.
"The filing re-victimizes survivors, turns them into numbers in the bankruptcy process, and reopens the old wounds from the abuse they suffered as children," said Tim Hale, with Nye, Stirling, Hale, Miller & Sweet. "The perpetrators made them feel as if they were nothing more than objects to be exploited for the perpetrators' gratification."
Hale has spent the past 25 years representing survivors across the country and here at home. He put the number of local survivors at roughly 90; many of those local cases were linked to friars assigned to St. Anthony's seminary and Old Mission Santa Barbara, dating back to the 1930's.
A spokeswoman with Old Mission Santa Barbara tells your NewsChannel that the alleged abuse never occurred on the actual grounds of the Old Mission and that none of the accused perpetrators were assigned to the Old Mission during the time of abuse. She also said that the Old Mission separately incorporated in 1998 and is not part of the bankruptcy.
Hale said it will be up to the bankruptcy court to determine assets.
This latest legal move -- which Hale anticipated back in November -- means litigation is now frozen.
"They're now subject to the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court."
Hale said the current batch of lawsuits he is handling spans the 1960's to the 1990's. He said he will push for a non-monetary component during this bankruptcy phase.
The Oakland-based organization released a statement yesterday explaining that it was driven to bankruptcy by a change in California law allowing survivors to file decades-old complaints rather than fall under a previous statute of limitations.
