Chubb Unit, California Diocese Stay Most Claims Over Abuse Suits

A Southern California diocese and one of its excess insurers, a Chubb Ltd. unit, agreed to pause several claims in a dispute over coverage for litigation alleging childhood sexual abuse.

The dispute, for now, will be limited to whether the excess insurer must cover the Diocese of Orange’s legal defense costs and whether coverage should “drop down,” since the underlying insurer is insolvent, the parties said in a stipulation filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The case is one of a number of coverage disputes pending across the country between Catholic dioceses and ...