Penn State is seeking to appeal a judge’s decision denying insurance coverage for a number of claims of child sexual abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The university is seeking a stay in its civil case with Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance pending the appeal, according to The Legal Intelligencer.
Philadelphia County Judge Gary Glazer ruled last month that an abuse and molestation exclusion in insurance policies between 1992-99 bars Penn State from insurance coverage for claims from that time period. About a third of claims were from this period, according to the motion to appeal.
Attorneys for the university said the ruling contradicts general insurance interpretation principles. Glazer had written that though Sandusky was not acting within the scope of his job duties when the abuse occurred, Penn State must assume responsibility. He also state that arguing Sandusky was not acting in the scope of his employment when the abuse occurred ‘would render the exclusion meaningless in every instance of abuse.’
Penn State also pointed to Pennsylvania case law which has found sexual abuse is not in the scope of employment and that Glazer’s conclusion contradicts law on vicarious liability.
‘This divergence in perspective is illustrated by the Superior Court’s declination, in one case, to find vicarious liability in the context of a priest who abused a child who was a neighbor and who sometimes attended the church where the priest was employed as a senior minister and where the abuse occurred at the priests’s home or the victim’s home,’ the motion stated.
Penn State is seeking an intermediate appellate court to rule on the policy interpretation and whether an employee committing acts of sexual abuse can ever be considered, as a matter of law, within the scope of their employment.
The university had paid about $90 million in settlements to individuals who claimed abuse by Sandusky.
Sandusky is also the founder of the Second Mile charity for at-risk youth, where prosecutors at his 2012 trial said he found and groomed many of his victims. Sandusky is serving a 30-60 year sentence and is currently seeking a new trial under the Post Conviction Relief Act.
