A jury voted on Friday evening in favor of more than 1,100 employees who lost some or all of their benefits after the St. Clare’s Hospital pension fund collapsed in 2019.
As WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief Jesse Taylor reports, it signals the end of a long journey for some pensioners.
Standing outside of a courtroom in the Schenectady County courthouse, Mary Hartshorne and Anne Hotaling reflected on the moment they heard the jury rule that all seven defendants in the case were found liable.
Hotaling, who worked at the Schenectady hospital for 29 years before it closed its doors in 2008, said the ruling makes the pensioners whole, but is still not enough.
“(It) does not account for the eight-and-a-half-years of pain and suffering, having to sell my home of 32 years, Mary having to sell her home,” Hotaling said.
“And losing our time, our livelihood, our dreams, our time with our family, what we wanted to do with our retirement. It's all gone,” Hartshorne said.
The verdict means that the defendants in the case – former Bishop Howard Hubbard, former Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, Rev. David LeFort, Robert Perry, Joseph Pofit, the St. Clare’s Corporation, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany – owe the pensioners $54.2 million in restitution.
Attorneys from the New York State Attorney General’s Office and AARP Foundation represented the pensioners in the case.
AARP Foundation Vice President of Litigation Louis Lopez said the jury found the diocese liable through respondeat superior – a legal theory that holds an employer responsible for the wrongful acts of an employee.
“The jury found that Father LeFort, Bishop Hubbard, Bishop Scharfenberger and Joseph Pofit; when they acted, they acted on behalf of the diocese and therefore the diocese is liable,” Lopez said.
The jury also ruled in favor of applying punitive damages on top of the $54 million judgment.
Jurors are set to meet this week to determine just how much the defendants will have to pay.
“The defendants will be able to introduce evidence of their financial condition, so that the jury can take that into account when assessing punitive damages, and we will have an opportunity to cross examine those defendants again,” Lopez said.
Lopez said that process should only take a few days.
“It depends on the availability of the defendant witnesses and their evidence that they intend to put on,” Lopez said.
The verdict comes as the Albany Diocese moves through the bankruptcy process and as hundreds of people have filed separate lawsuits alleging sexual abuse at the hands of its clergy.
On Friday morning before a verdict was reached, Bishop Mark O’Connell, who took over as the diocese’s new leader earlier this month, said the religious institution would make amends if it was found liable.
“If we are liable, then we will do what we can to make amends, given that they are one creditor as a group among many people accusing the Diocese of Albany. And that is what bankruptcy is. We obviously cannot pay a billion dollars, right, so that’s what Chapter 11 is all about, it's to figure out what is fair and since you have a bankruptcy judge and mediators it's not up to us. We will do what we are required to do,” O’Connell said.
After the verdict, the diocese issued a statement saying, in part, “We are still very much aware of the hurt felt by the St. Clare’s pensioners who cared for the sick and the poor throughout the long history of St. Clare’s hospital.” And the church vowed not to “turn our backs to the pensioners.”
Hartshorne, who worked at the hospital for 28 years, said she feels betrayed.
“Seriously. And now we know why and who and there will be payment,” Hartshorne said.
