A $345 million judgment awarded to 20 men who said they were sexually abused as students of the Darlington School in Rome was undone by the Georgia Court of Appeals, letting five insurers off the hook for the payment.
The decision, issued Friday, means the former students can’t collect the bulk of a $351 million settlement with Darlington School, in which the school paid $6 million and allowed the plaintiffs to recover the rest from its insurers.
A Floyd County judge had saddled the insurance companies with the judgment in 2024 after they refused to defend the private school when former students claimed they were abused by Roger Stifflemire, a former teacher and dorm supervisor.
The judgment came seven years after the private school began investigating allegations of historic abuse that occurred between 1974 and 1994.
Friday’s appellate court ruling, authored by Judge Todd Markle, ultimately found that various insurance policies issued to Darlington School over the years did not provide coverage for claims about the abuse and the school’s response.
“Nothing in this opinion should be read to minimize the abuse the victims suffered at the hands of Stifflemire, or Darlington’s complete abdication of its responsibility to protect the students enrolled there,” Markle wrote in a footnote.
Darren Penn, the lead lawyer for the former students who attended the school in the 1970s and 1980s, said they will ask the Georgia Supreme Court to review the case. He said Georgia is widely recognized as having some of the most restrictive laws in the country governing childhood sexual abuse claims.
“These survivors have shown remarkable strength throughout years of litigation, and they do not intend to allow this decision to be the final word,” Penn told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He said the disappointing ruling misinterprets the insurance policies at issue and, if allowed to stand, could have significant consequences for many organizations, as it broadly limits coverage.
“At its core, this case concerns whether insurance companies will be required to honor the commitments they made in their contracts,” he said.
When the $345M judgment was awarded in 2024, the head of Darlington School, Brent Bell, said he hoped it would be “another step in the healing process for the courageous group of survivors who came forward, shared their painful stories and helped expose the truth.”
“We cannot undo the past, and we realize that the scars left by Roger Stifflemire’s abuse during his tenure at Darlington from 1974-1994 may never fully heal,” Bell said at the time.
A spokesperson for the school said Monday that it does not have further comment.
Friday’s decision was “constrained by the language in the various insurance policies and the well-settled principles of contract interpretation,” Markle said.
Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company had been ordered to pay $232 million of the award, and the rest was divided between Continental Casualty Company, The North River Insurance Company, Great American Insurance Company and Zurich American Insurance Company.
They had issued commercial liability, excess and umbrella policies for Darlington School during periods relevant to the abuse claims, court records show.
“We appreciate receiving such a thorough opinion from the Court of Appeals,” said Laurie Webb Daniel, an Atlanta attorney who led the appeal for Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company.
Lawyers for the other insurers did not comment Monday.
Chris Gaba, one of the plaintiffs, told the AJC in 2024 that the $345 million judgment against the insurance companies was “a huge surprise” that gave him “a great deal of vindication.”
Gaba, who attended Darlington School from 1978 to 1981, said telling his story through the litigation process after keeping it a secret for a long time had helped him heal. He also shared his experience with members of the school’s governing board.
“I wanted them to see me,” he told the AJC. “I wanted them to hear it directly from me, what happened. I think the more, as a victim survivor of something like this, you can talk about it, the more healing there is.”
Stifflemire, who is not involved in the litigation, never publicly acknowledged abusing students and was not prosecuted. Attempts to contact him Monday were not successful.
The school removed Stifflemire’s name from a plaque that honored memorable and influential teachers and, in 2022, unveiled a new monument dedicated to the victims of sexual abuse at the school.
In her 2024 judgment against the insurance companies, Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs said Stifflemire had threatened students with expulsion and other penalties if they did not cooperate with his sexual and emotional abuse. She said one of the plaintiffs was expelled during his senior year after trying to resist and that he was awarded his high school diploma as part of the school settlement.
The plaintiffs alleged in part that school leaders were told of Stifflemire’s abuse when it was happening and did nothing about it.
The school agreed as part of its settlement to provide a hotline for abuse claims.
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