Legal Updates: Mediation Moves Forward; Insurance Meeting Scheduled

Mediator Named for State Case
As ordered last week by South Carolina First Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECSC) and The Episcopal Church have agreed on a mediator with the group that broke away from the Church in 2012. The parties have agreed to allow Thomas J. Wills IV to serve as mediator in regard to the ongoing dispute over enforcing the South Carolina Supreme Court’s 2017 decision on diocesan and parish properties. The first session will be held on September 4, 2019, in Charleston.

Wills has practiced law in Charleston for more than 30 years, and has been a certified mediator since 1993.

Meeting Scheduled with Church Insurance Company of Vermont
​In other legal news, at the invitation of The Episcopal Church, TECSC attorneys will meet with representatives for the Church Insurance Company of Vermont (CIC-VT) on September 5-6 in New York. The meeting will focus on the claim filed in federal court by TECSC on June 11, 2019, that CIC-VT acted in bad faith and secretly funded TECSC’s disaffiliated adversaries in litigation against the Diocese. Additional motions were filed by TECSC on July 18, 2019, in response to counterclaims filed by CIC-VT.