Eagle1993

I missed most of today, but Judge is asking why plan supporters are crossing Bates (BSA witness). In 8 years on the bench, she has never had hearings where proponents have cross examined other proponent witnesses to undercut their testimony. Never. She said plan proponents must be very careful what evidence they put in front of her as she will have to then consider it during plan confirmation. One BSA lawyer said this is ironic and she agreed. The judge looked very concerned about the direction this is headed. She had Bates leave before asking the TCC & FCR why they were going to cross examine him. Interesting...

To be clear, I do not believe the Catholic Church or any of their entities are protected. What happened is that the Ad Hoc Catholic Committee settled. They removed their objections and I believe they are protected like all COs for abuse post 1976. However, they are not protected prior to 1976.

Judge is watching this closely. Sometimes you can see her not watching as intentionally. Now asking if the concern that if councils were not included they would go bankrupt. I have to drop but .... interesting.

The council ad hoc leader is on and is getting butchered by one Gilion Dumas. This looks bad. Basically, she is brining up the calculation of BSA council payouts and going hard after the West Coast & Northwest. California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana. This is probably the worst cross I have see in terms of witness answers.

Watched just a bit, but I agree you can see the pain in his heart. I thought he had a great answer to "Is this a fair plan." He paused a long while ... and said no amount could ever compensate so it isn't fair to the victims. He went on to say while legally the Methodist Church had 3 years to pay, when the greater group of Methodist's learned that it would delay payments to survivors they decided to work hard and take out loans to pay early. The vast majority of their payment will come within the first year. It is hard to judge an individual over a hearing, but he seems to be a kind and thoughtful man.

Bishop Schol up now.

Three Harbors Council just announced that Indian Mound Scout Reservation is being sold to fund the bankruptcy. It was established in 1917 ....

What I found interesting in terms of the expert witness summary of what impacts membership. He talked about controversies and COs. He didn't talk about volunteers at all.

Going through P&L ... BSA did better in 2021 than plan. #1 aspect of financials is membership In 2021, we saw over 210,000 new scouts, but 2021 saw retention drop to 62% driven by Cub Scouts of only 50% Overall, plan assumes worse rates than historic in recruiting & retention.

Hearing this morning is focused on BSA's business plan and its feasibility. Going into details of BSA financials right now.

AH ... Clarity. Roman Catholic Church is not a participating CO. They are simply no longer an objecting one.

On or as soon as reasonably practicable after the Effective Date, and subject to the Bankruptcy Court granting a motion filed pursuant to sections 363(b), 1129(a)(4) and 503(b) of the Bankruptcy Code, Bankruptcy Rule 9019, or otherwise applicable bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy law, Reorganized BSA shall reimburse the RCAHC amounts they have paid to its counsel, ArentFox Schiff LLP and Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP (the “RCAHC Professionals”) for, reasonable, documented, and contractual professional advisory fees and expenses incurred by the RCAHC Professionals (the “RCAHC Restructuring Expenses”); provided, however, that, without limiting the foregoing, the RCAHC Restructuring Expenses shall be in an aggregate amount not to exceed $1,500,000, any award of such fees shall be payable by Reorganized BSA over the course of the twenty four (24) month period following the Effective Date of the Plan in four equal installments with the first installment due six (6) months following the Effective Date of the Plan. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Plan, the RCAHC Restructuring Expenses shall be subject to the terms of Article II.A.2 of the Plan, with the following modifications: (x) RCAHC Professionals shall comply with the procedures and processes set forth in Article II.A.2 by filing final fee application(s), which, for attorneys or law firms who are RCAHC Professionals, shall include time entry detail, which may be redacted for privilege; and (y) payment or reimbursement of RCAHC Restructuring Expenses shall be subject to the review and procedure of the Fee Examiner. Strong term, but US Trustee alluded to that.

US Trustee not happy ... stated that basically as long as someone gets a check they settle.

That $1.5M goes TO the Roman Catholic Church. Wow...

There is agreement with the Roman Catholic Ad Hoc Committee. 1 - They now support plan confirmation 2 - Will remove their witnesses 3 - Will support boy scouts including YP 4 - Will be treated as participating chartered orgs cfa95f81-22b0-409a-862d-6eb07e166523_9387.pdf (omniagentsolutions.com) BSA will pay $1.5M for this ... nothing from the Roman Catholic Church Being discussed right now

This is true. After Lujan asked her questions (which I honestly think many questions from her have been a bit odd/confusing/non relevant) Dr. Kennedy was asked some follow up questions and Dr. Kennedy clarified that No TCC member objected to this current plan. I do find it odd that Lujan was asking these questions ... it makes me suspicious that she knew internal TCC discussions. ... anyways.. I wasn't able to listen much beyond the first 50 mins of the trial today but I rejoined it from time to time ... so perhaps something shocking happened and I missed it. Certain insurers are fighting tooth and nail against this plan. They are VERY concerned ... I think especially about that neutral path. The BSA witness today, for the bit I saw him, was great. Also, I have been a bit surprised, but the only claimant group I see fighting hard is Guam (Lujan). A bit of background on the Guam group based on what I have seen. Lujan & Wolff, LLP seemed to have been offered a settlement in 2018 for their clients (I think in total 80 survivors). They didn't take it and decided to go to trial. Now, both the arch diocese AND BSA declared bankruptcy. My guess ... whatever offer they had in the past was much, much larger than any TDP or even neutral payout they can expect. Some of their lawyer's questions go into that history ... "remember when you gave us that offer. Remember when you said x,y,z." I'm sure she feels devastated for her clients, and I can see that pain, but at the same time, one had to know BSA was in financial trouble and factored that into the decision making.

I'll concur here. I tried to explain what happened and the questions were a bit confusing from Lujan. However, the questioning and back and forth wasn't exactly clear so I could see how it would appear TCC members voted to reject the plan (later that was cleared up).

And Dr. Kennedy done. On cross he was asked about the RSA a lot and reviewed transcripts of townhalls. Basically, focusing on independence of the trust. White & Case very upset now over adding the transcripts of the townhalls to the record without notice. In any case, the insurance companies are very concerned about Trust Governance and not being fair to them. The Guam lawyer asked if the TCC approval of the new plan was unanimous and it wasn't or it was ... actually, I wasn't fully clear on that. I question if it matters...

TCC firmly supports this plan, 85% approval is sufficient (never will get close to 100%).

Dr. Doug Kennedy ... there is no other path available than this plan to resolve this case. Many claimants are over 70 and many survivors may pass away before resolution if this plan fails (over 12,000). If this plan fails, the likely other path is state courts. One TCC member is near 80 and driving DoorDash to make ends meet. The bankruptcy will help these people. The plan approval would also help start the closure for survivors. Every must follow their own path, but one of the worst parts is not having closure)

I am not aware of any; however, from what I heard yesterday the VAST majority of cases are being settled out of court so few would know. I would not be surprised if a leader is named in the future, especially if they violated BSA policy.

I agree. I don't think most of the volunteers (unit, district and council) have a clue what is coming. The national volunteers seem well connected so they probably have a good idea. To be fair, I don't think any of us really know either (at least specifics), but we at least know some major changes are coming. I'll see if I can find those slides on the docket. I hate going by memory. I remember seeing a full digital or improved digital experience, a single scout program, girls something, more relevant, outdoors (emphasized) as some of the key points. Again, this was a brainstorming session and doesn't mean anything is locked down, but it gives an idea of what changes they have in mind. Also note Dr. Kennedy who made a short appearance on Scouter.com will be the first witness tomorrow. I believe he was one of the key negotiators behind the youth protection changes. They stated his testimony will be brief. 10 AM Eastern start.

I expect a lot of council leaders watched Monday. There was over 450 on the call at one point and the last two days <300. I expect many knew to watch Devang Desai's testimony. Those power point slides came up very early ... so you didn't need to watch long. That said ... I expect for most it wasn't a surprise.

That AND the possibility of freezing of pensions.

Interesting points now coming up. Basically, no defendants want to take sex abuse claims to trial. The losses are big. Juries award large amounts. In addition, there was a case where the jury determined the case was outside SOL; however, still awarded $15K with no reason given. The witness is basically indicating why the TDPs are valid (and why insurance is probably wrong when they say they are too high).