Insurers Seek to Avoid Coverage in Prep School Sex Abuse Lawsuit

By Jessica Dye
Thomson Reuters News & Insight
December 20, 2012

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/12_-_December/Insurers_seek_to_avoid_coverage_in_prep_school_sex_abuse_lawsuit/

NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Two insurers are seeking a court order relieving them from paying the legal costs of a Brooklyn prep school accused in a civil lawsuit of covering up allegations of child sex abuse.

The lawsuit, unsealed Tuesday, was filed in Brooklyn federal court against Poly Prep County Day School and current and former administrators.

The lawsuit stems out of another lawsuit initially filed in 2009. The plaintiffs include 10 former students and two men who, while still underage, attended the school's summer camp. They claimed they had been abused by Philip Foglietta, a football coach at the school from 1966 to 1991. No criminal charges were ever brought against Foglietta, who died in 1998.

They said Poly Prep and several former and current administrators and directors swept reports of Foglietta's abuse under the rug for years to protect the school's reputation. The school denied covering up allegations of abuse.

In 2010, Poly Prep sent Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America and the Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut -- both units of The Travelers Companies Inc -- a notice seeking coverage for defense and indemnification costs under policies allegedly issued to the school between 1966 and the present, according to the insurers' lawsuit.

The insurers disclaimed coverage under the alleged policies in several letters to Poly Prep and then brought a lawsuit against the school, former headmaster William Williams, current headmaster David Harman and former administrator Michael Novello. It was initially filed under seal on Dec. 6 and was unsealed on Tuesday.

The insurers said the defendants had not proven that Poly Prep had taken out insurance policies that would cover liability stemming from the alleged abuse. Even if they had, the insurers argued, the notice of claim -- filed a year after the initial lawsuit -- was late.

The insurers also said that the alleged policies excluded coverage for "bodily injury" that was "expected or intended." According to the allegations in the abuse lawsuit, Poly Prep officials had received complaints about Foglietta as early as the 1960s.

A spokesman for Poly Prep and a lawyer for the insurers declined to comment. A lawyer for the defendants could not be reached for comment.

Insurers also tried to disclaim coverage stemming from the sex abuse case against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State who was convicted of molesting young boys and sentenced to 30-60 years. The insurers for Sandusky and Penn State both filed lawsuits seeking to disclaim coverage in connection with the alleged abuse. The suits are pending in Pennsylvania state and federal courts.

The case is Travelers Casualty and Surety Insurance Co of America v. Poly Prep Country Day School, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No. 12-6015.

For the plaintiffs: Alan Eagle and Joanne Engeldrum of Rivkin Radler.

For the defendants: John Fried of Fried & Epstein.