Both Cedar Hill and Montville were sued by one alleged victim, identified in court documents as Child M, who had been a Cedar Hill student. The Child M suit said Montville knew of multiple instances of improper conduct between Fennes and children while he was teaching in that district, but made a deal calling for him to resign if the district agreed not to notify the authorities or to mention those incidents in references to future employers.

Fennes was sentenced in January to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing five girls in the Montville district. He also pleaded guilty in October 2016 to sexually abusing one girl at Cedar Hill and is awaiting sentencing in that case.

The Child M suit claimed that the plaintiff would not have been assaulted but for Montville's failure to provide "pertinent and highly relevant information" to Cedar Hill.

Bodily injury coverage

After Montville sued Zurich, the insurance company disclaimed coverage under the part of its policy providing insurance for a bodily injury caused by an occurrence. Excluded from coverage are claims for bodily injury arising out of an abusive act. In addition, Zurich said one of Child M's allegations — that the school district knew about Fennes' alleged prior abusive acts but failed to report to them to authorities — brought the lawsuit under the "prior known abusive acts" exclusion in the policy.

McNulty rejected Montville's argument that Fennes was not employed by Montville when the alleged abuse of Child M took place. "'Abusive acts' are not defined to include only those committed against Montville students. Far from it: An abusive act is 'any act or series of acts of actual or threatened abuse or molestation done to any person by anyone,'" McNulty said.

"For purposes of the abusive-acts exclusion, it does not matter that Montville no longer employed Fennes or that Child M was not a Montville student," McNulty said.

'Clear and unambiguous'

The judge said the terms of the abusive act exclusion are "clear and unambiguous, and I will not engage in a strained construction to support coverage."

Susan Hodges of Schwartz Simon Edelstein & Celso in Whippany, representing the school district, did not immediately return a call. Lorraine Armenti of Coughlin Duffy in Morristown, who represented Zurich, also did not immediately return a call for comment.

Contact the reporter at [email protected]. On Twitter: @ctoutantnjlj.