SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (WRGB) — A jury verdict awarding $54 million to former St. Clare’s Hospital employees marked a major legal victory Friday — but questions now loom over when pensioners will see any of that money.
More than 1,100 former St. Clare’s employees won the judgment after a jury found that employees of the Albany Catholic Diocese were liable in the collapse of the hospital’s pension plan.
The jury found that the individual defendants, former Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger and the late Howard Hubbard, former diocesan employee and St. Clare’s President Joseph Pofit, and former St. Clare’s Hospital President Robert Perry, all breached their fiduciary duties to the St. Clare’s Hospital and the pensioners.
While the jury did not find the Diocese itself directly responsible for causing the pension’s collapse, the finding against its employees makes the Diocese financially responsible for the judgment.
The Diocese is currently in bankruptcy, complicating the path to payment.
Legal experts say the verdict could prove to be a hollow victory — a win on paper that may take months to years to translate into real compensation.
Of the more than 1,100 pensioners involved in the case, roughly 650 retirees lost all of their pension benefits after the hospital closed in 2008.
Mary Hartshorne, chair of the St. Clare’s Pension Recovery Alliance and a longtime leader of the effort to recover lost pensions, said the verdict is meaningful but far from the end.
“I think that’s something that has to be determined,” Hartshorne said when asked where the $54 million would come from. “Because the Diocese had filed for bankruptcy a couple of years ago, we have to go by New York State law. So that means we probably have to go back to the bankruptcy court.”
Jared Cook, an employment attorney with Tully Rinckey, who is not involved in the case, said payment is unlikely to happen quickly.
“It’s unlikely that they’re going to see it anytime very soon,” Cook said. “It’s probably going to be quite a while.”
Cook said post-judgment litigation could involve attempts to locate Diocese assets or place liens on property — a process that could take months or even years.
Cook says each diocese in the United States is considered its own entity. This means they can’t pull funds from the global Catholic institution.
Hartshorne said the prolonged timeline is especially painful for pensioners who have already waited years for accountability.
