Massachusetts Landmark Legal Settlements
Boston Archdiocese agrees to $85M sex abuse settlement
The Boston Archdiocese in 2003 agreed to pay $85 million to 552 people who claimed they were sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests, who devastated their lives.
Under the agreement, victims received awards ranging from $80,000 to $300,000. Award amounts will be decided by a mediator, based on the type of molestation, the duration of the abuse and the injury suffered.
Parents who filed lawsuits claiming their children were abused received $20,000.
Wal-Mart pays settlement
In 2009 Wal-Mart agreed to pay the largest cash settlement in Massachusetts history to resolve a class-action pay-dispute lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of about 90,000 Wal-Mart employees, alleged a series of wage and hour violations by the world’s largest retailer.
The $40 million cash settlement was a Massachusetts record, representing the highest per-capita settlement of any of the 16 other similar Wal-Mart settlements nationwide.
Boy divorces father
In 2004 a teenage boy won a landmark legal battle to successfully divorce his own father, who was serving a life sentence for murdering his mother.
The father, Daniel Holland, signed a settlement agreeing to give up his parental rights and waive any right to be a part of his son Patrick’s life.
The 14-year-old boy was one of the first children to independently initiate a divorce from a parent. His father is serving life in prison for shooting his wife eight times at their Quincy home.
"Big Dig" death suit
The family of a woman killed when a Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapsed settled a wrongful death lawsuit for more than $6 million with one of the companies that worked on the highway project.
The settlement with Powers Fasteners was reached on behalf of the husband and three children of Milena Del Valle, who was killed in 2006 when part of a tunnel ceiling collapsed on her car.
The collapse caused a section of the tunnel to be closed for nearly a year, while Del Valle's death sparked a public backlash against the $15 billion Big Dig, the most expensive highway project in U.S. history. The faultily constructed transportation project has been plagued by cost overruns, leaks, falling debris and other problems.
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