LDS Church loses lawsuit over payment of sexual abuse settlements
The Church sued its insurance companies, National Union Insurance and ACE Property & Casualty Co., claiming that the companies should pay for a sexual abuse lawsuit involving the church that was settled in West Virginia.
The case, filed initially by the church in 2021, centered around the church disputing the policies of two insurance companies it had contracted with to restitute lost payments tied to a West Virginia sexual abuse settlement — which involved the sexual abuse of children by a man named Michael Jensen.
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The lawsuit alleged that the church failed to report a reasonable suspicion of child sexual abuse as required by West Virginia law, failing to protect the children from their abuser. The church settled the case, but their insurance companies — National Union Insurance and ACE Property & Casualty Co. — would not cover the settlements.
The Church then sued the insurance companies in federal court in Salt Lake City, claiming that the companies were in breach of contract. They lost.
The court ruled against the LDS Church on April 6, stating that insurance companies contracted by the church 'did not owe the church a duty to defend or indemnify under any implicated policy,' and as a result, the companies did not 'breach their contractual obligations to the Church under any policy or the implied covenants of good faith and fair dealing inherent in the contracts they entered into with the church.'
The church also came under fire in 2022 after an Arizona bishop learned that a member of his ward was sexually assaulting his 5-year-old daughter. The bishop then followed church policy and called the Mormon Abuse Help Line.
He later informed police that church attorneys in Salt Lake City who staff the help line claimed that because he learned of the abuse during a counseling session, the church considers it a spiritual confession, and he was therefore legally bound to keep the abuse secret.
The abuser was identified as Paul Douglas Adams, a U.S. Border Patrol employee who was living with his wife and six children in Bisbee, Arizona. Adams abused the bishop's daughter for seven more years, and went on to abuse his second daughter, according to the Associated Press. He reportedly finally stopped in 2017 — and with no help from the church — because he was arrested.
The incident led the Associated Press to obtain thousands of pages of sealed court documents that show, in detail, how the church's help line can divert abuse complaints away from law enforcement.
The financial details of the ruling against the LDS Church in regard to the sexual abuse in West Virginia has been redacted.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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