BANKRUPTCY TIMELINE

A look back from when the CVA started to the Diocese's settlement announcement with survivors

FEB. 14, 2019

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signs the Child Victims Act into law which expands the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, allowing victims to file civil lawsuits until age 55 and extends criminal prosecution limits until age 28. It also includes a “look-back window” which allows lawsuits against abusers and institutions for past abuse. 

AUG. 14, 2019

The one-year CVA window goes into effect in New York state. 

MAY 2020

Cuomo signs legislation extending the CVA lookback window to January 2021 because of COVID. This is further extended until Aug. 14, 2021. With the CVA in effect, the Diocese of Albany will be named in roughly 440 CVA lawsuits along with other religious orders and institutions as co-defendants.

JULY 7, 2022

The Diocese releases a draft of a mediation proposal but the Plaintiff Liaison Committee (PLC), a group of lawyers representing victims/survivors,  says it would take the power away from victims/survivors. 

JULY 13, 2022

The PLC rejects the Diocese’s plan and moves ahead with a standard mediation/arbitration plan for victims/survivors, which is also agreed to by long-time diocesan counsel, Michael Costello.

AUGUST 2022

The Diocese begins mediation with the PLC. Costello, and most notably Jeff Anderson and Cynthia LaFave, meet via Google Zoom monthly to provide State Supreme Court Judge L. Michael Mackey, who is overseeing the mediation, with updates and concerns.

NOV. 18, 2022

During a status conference in Albany, the PLC says it did not want to give more information to the diocesan insurance carriers, who will pay a large portion of any negotiated settle­ment because the PLC feels it would not move the mediation process forward. The Diocese is not willing to move forward without carrier involvement but Costello adds that the Diocese remains committed to the mediation as the “most efficient and less costly way” which would not happen in a Chapter 11 filing.

NOV. 23, 2022

During a meeting the day before Thanksgiving, an agitated Paul Finn, one of the co-mediators who will soon bow out of the mediation process, calls it “a complete and total waste of time” as the PLC starts off the Zoom call demanding that the Diocese of Albany make a “realistic” offer for what it would contribute to a global settlement fund on Nov. 29 or the mediation process should end. The first undisclosed diocesan offer is made in August. Mackey notes that the two parties seem no closer than they were in July.

DEC. 13, 2022

Mackey hears oral arguments on the Diocese of Albany’s motion to request a three-month pause in CVA litigation. Costello reiterates that the goal of the Diocese is for “a fair and equitable resolution of survivors’ claims.” He wants to continue the mediation process which he said would “mimic” a Chapter 11 proceeding without the exorbitant costs, which could total $600,000 a month in legal expenses.

DEC. 29, 2022

The Diocese delivers an enhanced (financial) offer to the PLC in an attempt to settle CVA claims. 

JAN. 3, 2023

The Diocese of Albany announces that it has removed its request for a pause in CVA litigation.  

JAN. 9, 2023

Costello receives an email from Simone Lelchuk, one of the co-mediators, who says that the Diocese’s latest offer — the first offer was rejected by the PLC — was also shot down and the PLC “no longer exists and is disbanded.” 

JAN. 13, 2023

After a lawyer representing victims/survivors claims the Diocese of Albany is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate holdings, the Diocese calls the claims “speculative” and “exaggerated.” 

LaFave says that Anderson, whose law firm of Anderson and Associates is working together with LaFave and her firm on 190 cases against the Diocese, commissioned the report which said the Diocese has real estate holdings with an assessed market value of nearly $500 million. During the conference call overseen by Mackey, Costello calls the assertion “astonishing” and “befuddling.” 

MARCH 15, 2023

Saying it was the “best way, at this point, to ensure that all victims/survivors with pending CVA litigation will receive some compensation,” the Diocese of Albany files for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. 

SPRING 2023

Since filing for voluntary Chapter 11, the Diocese provides information to the committees regarding its assets and liabilities and that process will play a part in determining what the Diocese can contribute to a global settlement fund. 

SUMMER 2023

In the summer, a Parish Steering Committee is established and Father James Walsh, pastor at St. Pius X Church in Loudon­ville, is appointed the chair. The job of the parish steering committee is to assist parishes and schools through the bankruptcy proceedings. 

JUNE 1, 2023

The Diocese of Albany, in a statement, says it will not oppose the St. Clare’s pensioners’ motion to lift the stay in litigation during bankruptcy to allow their case against the Diocese to proceed. In March 2019, the St. Clare’s Corporation dissolved, causing some of the nearly 1,100 St. Clare’s Hospital employees to lose some or all of their retirement benefits. On May 24, 2022, New York attorney general Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the Diocese on behalf of the employees who allege they lost their retirement benefits because of actions by the Diocese. 

DEC. 29, 2023

The bankruptcy court appoints as co-mediators Roger Kramer, an experienced mediation attorney from Minnesota who is involved in the Diocese of Syracuse case, and Paul Van Osselaer, who is also an experienced mediation attorney known for his work with insurance companies and has been appointed as a mediator in the Diocese of Rockville Centre and the Diocese of Syracuse cases.  

JAN. 8, 2024

During a proceeding related to the Diocese of Albany’s voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization, Bishop Scharfenberger provides sworn testimony and again reiterates his support for survivors of sexual abuse, saying, “Survivors come first.” 

Bishop Scharfenberger makes those comments during his nearly seven-hour examination with attorneys representing CVA claimants and other creditors, including those representing the St. Clare’s pensioners, at the Leo O’Brien Federal Building in Albany. 

MARCH 12, 2025

A federal bankruptcy judge announces that he is allowing eight child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Albany to go to trial. Frustrated with the pace of mediation between the Diocese of Albany, its insurers and attorneys representing plaintiffs asserting claims under the CVA, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Littlefield Jr. lifts the stay on litigation to allow these “test cases” to go forward. 

SEPT. 10, 2025

In U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York in downtown Albany, people who allege they were abused by priests and others employed by the Diocese of Albany tell their stories, some for the first time.

The three days of testimony — 52 testimonies were read — were set up by Judge Littlefield after a motion was filed this summer by attorneys representing the CVA claimants, a group officially known as the Official Committee of Tort Claimants, who have filed lawsuits against the Diocese. The testimonies are not entered in the court record or made under oath; it just gave the survivors a chance to speak.

OCT. 17, 2025

The Diocese of Albany agrees to an $8 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges he was abused by a former diocesan priest. The agreement comes before the lawsuit was to go to trial as one of the test cases.

OCT. 20, 2025

During his introductory press conference, Bishop Mark O’Connell says of the diocesan bankruptcy: “In the midst of bankruptcy, there is shame and there is sadness, but there is also a chance to acknowledge sinfulness and continue to reach out and love those that have been so terribly hurt. There is an opportunity in bankruptcy that the church is better, stronger when we do this. In the midst of division in the world, we have the opportunity to build bridges of faith. In the midst of suspicion, we have an opportunity to gain trust.”

DEC. 12, 2025

The Albany Diocese is found not directly liable for the collapse of the St. Clare’s pension fund, but individual defendants, Bishop Emeritus Scharfenberger, the estate of the late Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, the estate of the late Father David LeFort, St. Clare’s Corporation, former St. Clare’s president Joseph Pofit and former St. Clare’s CEO Robert Perry, are found directly at fault. The jury awarded the 1,100 pensioners $54.2 million.

MARCH 27, 2026

The Diocese of Albany reaches a $148 million settlement agreement with the survivors of sexual abuse by diocesan priests and others. “This day is a day to honor survivors, to honor those who were very shamefully hurt by the Diocese of Albany and by priests and by the placement of them by bishops and that’s where the focus is today,” said Bishop Mark O’Connell at a press conference at the Pastoral Center