Drowns v. The Boy Scouts of America
Charles Drowns v. The Boy Scouts of America, and The Greater New York Councils of The Boy Scouts of America
- Gregory Woods
- 1:20-cv-01983
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Charles Drowns v. The Boy Scouts of America, Judge Woods ordered the case closed unless a party requests keeping it open by February 17, 2026.
Charles Drowns and The Boy Scouts of America and The Greater New York Councils of The Boy Scouts of America; the case will be closed unless a request to keep it open is submitted by February 17, 2026.
What happened
Charles Drowns sued The Boy Scouts of America and The Greater New York Councils of The Boy Scouts of America. The case was stayed while bankruptcy proceedings involving the Boy Scouts continued.
The bankruptcy court repeatedly extended the stay. After the bankruptcy court issued a July 29, 2022 opinion concerning the Boy Scouts’ reorganization plan, the district court had not received the requested status update.
The court assumed that the claims had been resolved and ordered that the case will be closed unless a request to keep it open is submitted by February 17, 2026. Judge Gregory H. Woods did not decide the underlying claims in this order.
The detailed version
- Drowns v. The Boy Scouts of America · No. 1:20-cv-01983
- Gregory Woods
- Dec. 3, 2025
Background
The case was stayed in April 2020 after The Boy Scouts of America notified the district court of a bankruptcy-court order. A stay temporarily pauses a case. The bankruptcy court’s order stayed this action, and later stipulations repeatedly extended the stay.
In July 2021, the stay was extended through the date of the first omnibus hearing after the bankruptcy court decided whether to confirm the Boy Scouts’ reorganization plan. The district court then asked the parties to provide a status update within 14 days after that hearing. The court repeated that request in December 2021.
The bankruptcy court issued an opinion concerning confirmation of the reorganization plan on July 29, 2022. The district court stated that it had not received a status update and therefore assumed that the claims in this action had been resolved.
Order
The court ordered that the case will be closed unless a request to keep it open is submitted by February 17, 2026. This order does not state that the court dismissed the case or decide the underlying claims. It also does not explain how the claims were resolved; it only states the court’s assumption that they had been resolved.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.