Availability Of Coverage Under A CGL Policy For Historical Sexual Abuse

Are payments offered through a conciliation process designed to make moral amends covered by commercial general liability (CGL) insurance?  Such was the novel issue considered by the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench in L'Évêque Catholique Romain de Bathurst v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada and Co-Operators General Insurance Company (intervenor), 2016 NBQB 174.

Background

The parties were seeking a determination whether Aviva was responsible to reimburse the Diocese for moneys paid to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of its priests during the sixties and seventies.  During that period, a series of policies of insurance for general commercial liability had been issued to the Diocese by Aviva's predecessor companies.