Insurer to reimburse Bathurst diocese for victim compensation

The insurer of the Catholic diocese of Bathurst will have to reimburse the church for compensation paid to victims of sexual assaults committed by priests after the company's appeal was rejected by the country's highest court.

Aviva Insurance Company brought the years-long battle over whose responsibility it was to compensate victims to the Supreme Court of Canada late last year.

That move followed a New Brunswick Court of Appeal decision in favour of the church.

The Supreme Court said in a decision issued Thursday it would not hear the case.

"The application for leave to appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeal for New Brunswick [...] is dismissed with costs," the decision stated.

The judgment is final and Aviva will have no choice but to compensate its client, the Bathurst diocese.

The diocese claimed about $ 3.3 million in compensation paid to victims in addition to legal fees.

The church had been arguing the insurance policy at the time of the abuse included coverage for "bodily injury caused intentionally by … the archdiocese."

But Aviva claimed the church failed in its obligation to disclose information about the abuse, and the coverage was therefore void.

The Bathurst case relates to allegations of sexual abuse against various priests from the late 1950s to the early 1980s — many of them involving priest Levi Noel, who was convicted of 22 sex-related offences in 2010 and freed from prison a year before his death in 2016.

After a split decision in 2016 by the Court of Queen's Bench that both parties contested, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the church, when Aviva abandoned its part of the appeal.

The Supreme Court's decision could affect a similar case involving the Archdiocese of Moncton. The church is seeking $4.2 million against its insurer, Co-operators General Insurance.