Sunday, November 8, 2009 East Central Illinois

Normal schools' insurer doesn't want to pay potential damages related to at least one abuse victim

By: Amy F. Reiter

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

NORMAL – The insurance provider for the McLean County Unit 5 school district does not want to pay any potential damages related to at least one victim in the Jon White case – and has asked the court to grant its request.

The provider, Cincinnati Insurance Co. in Ohio, filed the court request – a "complaint for declaratory judgment" – in response to a civil suit filed on July 25 by Champaign lawyer Ellyn Bullock on behalf of one of the Urbana child victims of White and the girl's mother, called Jane Doe-2 and Julie Doe-2.

The victim's suit contained allegations against White's behavior, as well as that of several school personnel in Urbana and Normal. The suit alleged that the personnel knew or should have known about White's inappropriate behavior toward young girls, and that they concealed it. For five administrators in Normal – former Superintendent Alan Chapman; Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Jim Braksick; current Principal Edward Heineman; former Assistant Principal Dale Heidbreder; and John Pye, the assistant superintendent of operations and human resources – the suit alleged that they purposely passed White on to the Urbana school district despite his questionable behavior in Normal. The suit also named the Normal and Urbana school districts as defendants.

Cincinnati Insurance Co. doesn't insure Urbana schools.

The insurer's complaint points to parts of the Normal school district's insurance plan, and states that it should not have to insure White in the matter partly because the incidents "occurred during a prior policy period" and that the Normal defendants knew "'sexual misconduct or sexual molestation' had occurred or begun to occur, in whole or in part prior to the 2005 and 2006 policy years," among other policies and exclusions cited in the complaint.

Champaign lawyer Howard Small has worked on many insurance cases, though not this one. He said insurance companies list all possible reasons the allegations might not fit the coverage because it is possible that if the court determines any one broad exclusion applies, the insurance company doesn't have to pay for damages or legal representation in that situation. "They list them all on a shotgun basis and hope something sticks to the wall," he said.

Hope Nightingale of the Litchfield Cavo law office in Chicago, which represents the insurer, said the complaint is not "a comment whatsoever that the allegations are true, but assuming they are true, those claims are not" covered by the insurance company. She said Illinois law requires that the company assume the allegations are true.

Nightingale said whether insurance would pay for any possible damages could be decided before the civil suit is decided.

The McLean County Unit 5 school district's attorney, Dennis Triggs of the Peoria firm of Miller, Hall & Triggs, was on vacation. His colleague Curt Richardson was not available Wednesday afternoon.

Small said it is common for insurance companies to seek declaratory judgments against an intentional "wrongdoer" like White. "These are supposed to be accident policies. That's not really in the spirit of a coverage," he said.

White has been convicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, eight in Champaign County and two in McLean County.

Small said it is less common – but not unheard of – for an insurance carrier to file this type of complaint against those who are alleged "not hands-on wrongdoers."

He said it's possible the insurers would continue to legally represent the person or entity named in the complaint before that complaint is decided.

Nightingale said whether those named would be represented by the insurer is "still in negotiation."

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