NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times
December 4, 2017
By Elizabeth A. Harris
As prep schools increasingly confront past sexual misconduct, they often use laws limiting when a lawsuit can be filed to avoid paying victims.
When John Humphrey was a student at what is now the Pingry School in New Jersey in the early 1970s, he was sexually abused by a teacher, he said. It began when he was 11 years old, and happened several times a week over two school years, until he left the school after the sixth grade.
Ray Dackerman said he was abused more than 100 times while he was a student there around the same time, beginning when he was 12 years old. The abuse took place in the teacher’s office and in Boy Scout tents, and even in the teacher’s home while his wife was in the house.
Mr. Humphrey and Mr. Dackerman say they were abused by the same man, Thad Alton, at the same school — even in the same tent at the same time. In its own investigation, Pingry found that Mr. Alton had abused at least 27 boys at the school.
When the men began settlement discussions with Pingry this fall, the school could have treated them equally, based on their abuse. But instead, their lawyers say, it drew a line using civil statutes of limitation, which spells out how long victims have to bring a lawsuit. In New Jersey, the clock starts running when survivors discover that the abuse left lasting injuries on their lives. They have two years from that date to initiate legal action.
Mr. Humphrey, who clearly fell within the statute and so could sue, was most likely looking at a substantial amount of money; Mr. Dackerman, who did not, seemed likely to get far less.
Statutes of limitation are devised to protect people and institutions from false allegations that are impossible to defend because evidence is stale, witnesses are dead and documents have been lost. But as schools increasingly confront sexual abuse carried out against children in their care, sometimes decades ago, the statutes have also become a way for them to avoid paying victims.
Lawyers, insurers and other experts in the field say that former students whose abuse falls within the statute might receive a settlement in the high six figures, even millions. But once outside it, victims see just a fraction of that, even as schools commission investigations, declare their contrition and promise to do right by them. Often, survivors see nothing at all.
That is largely a function of who is paying. Abuse is usually covered by a school’s general liability insurance policy, according to Robb Jones, senior vice president and general counsel for claims management at United Educators Insurance. In general, insurers will pay when the abuse in question is within the statute.
“The promise that comes as part of an insurance contract, so to speak, is to pay for legal liability, not for moral liability,” Mr. Jones said. For his company, a significant player among independent schools, paying for a case outside the statute of limitations “would be a true exception.”
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