Insurer wants out of duty to defend school sexual abuse suit
The suit against the Leonia School Board was filed in November 2021, though the plaintiff says the alleged sexual abuse happened in 1980.
A lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of Employers Insurance Company of Wausau that aims to relieve the insurer of its duty to defend a New Jersey school district in a case regarding sexual abuse that allegedly happened more than 40 years ago.
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Attorneys with Goldberg Segalla filed the complaint, Employers Insurance Co. of Wausau v. Leonia Board of Education et al., in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey Tuesday. In it, the insurer alleged that the policy period, which began in April 1980, did not align with the dates the abuse victim testified to in depositions. The two individual defendants named in the case were an alleged abuse victim, Daniel Schlademan, and his alleged abuser, John Anagnosti, according to the complaint.
Counsel for Wausau insurance, Marci Goldstein Kokalas of Goldberg Segalla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Counsel to the defendants have not yet appeared.
On Nov. 11, 2021, Schlademan filed suit in Bergen County Superior Court against the Leonia Board of Education and Anagnosti, alleging that the abuse took place in approximately 1980. At that time, Schlademan was 10 years old and was allegedly the victim of unpermitted sexual contact and abuse while he was a student in the Leonia school system, according to the complaint.
Leonia subsequently sought liability coverage for the claim. However, Wausau alleged in its complaint that in Schlademan’s November 2023 deposition, he testified that the abuse stopped in either December 1979 or January 1980. Wausau alleged there was no policy coverage for that time period because its policy with Leonia commenced on April 1, 1980.
In their two-count complaint, Employers Insurance Co. of Wausau sought declaratory judgement that there was no coverage under the policy since it was outside the policy period and on other bases.
“The policy includes various additional terms, conditions and exclusions which bar coverage for the underlying action, including a limitation of coverage to ‘bodily injury’ caused by an ‘occurrence’ as defined in the policy, and precludes coverage for claims that are not based on accidents that were neither expected nor intended from the standpoint of the insured,” the complaint said.
Wausau further alleged that the policy contains certain conditions precedent to coverage such as the insured’s obligation to give timely notice of a claim to Wausau, and points to the policy’s bar on coverage for punitive damages. The insurer also sought costs including attorneys fees and costs associated with Schlademan’s claim.