These suits tend to focus on two areas: What preventive care was taken to screen leaders? (That's only been happening more thoroughly over the past 10-20 years among groups & churches working with youth)
Secondly, what knowledge did BSA have "after-the-fact" -- and what, if any, action was taken accordingly.
Up until a few years ago if you asked the BSA what it did to screen leaders the answer was “That’s the responsibility of the sponsoring institution. They are in charge of selecting leaders. We have no input to that.” A few years ago the BSA entered into a contract with some organization whose name I forget and now every adult applicant must provide their SSN. Their information is run by this company through all 50 states’ databases to see if you have any felony convictions, any convictions regarding things like drugs, DUI or child molestation, or any protection orders entered against you. But the BSA still does not and cannot supervise your activities. That, and the discovery and investigation of any factors that won’t show up the above categories, is still the repsponsibility of the sponsoring institution.
Now, if any abuse allegations were forwarded to the Council office they are bound to call the cops. No, they do not investigate - that’s the cops’ job. If such allegations were forwarded to the Council and they did not act in that fashion then I’d agree that they were liable. Otherwise I don’t see any way that the BSA could have any responsibility for this.