In the wake of an abuse scandal involving Fairfield University that left the school with a $61 million settlement bill to pay, the University filed a civil suit last September against Vigilant Insurance Company and Federal Insurance Company, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court. Fairfield alleges that the firms, both part of the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and Vigilant and Federal, did not pay the amount necessary to cover the costs associated with the case. The Chubb Group of New Jersey, the University’s insurer, claims that it has not breached any contract with the school, and has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
“By refusing to pay more than a partial share of the ‘Perlitz II’ settlement and requiring its insured to advance its own funds in order to consummate the settlement, Chubb has breached its duty to indemnify Fairfield,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit comes over a year after Fairfield agreed to pay plaintiffs a share of $61 million in a group of lawsuits stemming from a sexual misconduct scandal involving Douglas Perlitz ‘92. Perlitz is a Fairfield University graduate and was the 2002 commencement speaker who founded and ran a residential school for homeless boys in Haiti called Project Pierre-Toussaint (PPT). Fairfield raised money for the school and sent students to volunteer there. The University, along with several other defendants, had been accused of being negligent in its supervision of Perlitz.
In addition to the lawsuits settled in 2019, referred to as Perlitz II in court documents, Fairfield was also named in a group of lawsuits filed by two dozen former PPT pupils that were settled in 2013 for $12 million.
Perlitz, who served as director of the PPT from its founding in 1997 to his termination in 2008, threatened to withhold food and shelter from the boys, now grown men, and expel them from the school if they did not comply with his sexual demands or if they spoke out against him. After being terminated, Perlitz, who was accused of abusing over a hundred underaged boys, was arrested and pleaded guilty to one count of traveling overseas to engage in sex with a minor. In 2010, he was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in federal prison, according to an article from January in the CT Post.
Fairfield maintains that it was not negligent in its supervision of Perlitz, and that he acted independently of the University.
To date, neither Fairfield University nor Chubb have commented publicly on the lawsuit.
“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on legal matters,” Chubb Group spokesman Eric Samansky told the CT Post.
Vice president of marketing and communications Jennifer L. Anderson was also quoted in the same article saying, “Fairfield University does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
Fairfield released a statement following the announcement of the settlement in early 2019. “A significant proportion of the funds to be used in the University’s contribution to the settlement will come through a University insurance carrier. The University has been planning for this litigation, and any difference has been allocated for and will not have material impact on the financial integrity of the University or its day-to-day operations in serving our students, faculty and the broader Fairfield Community,” the University said at the time. “We will continue to make investments to enhance our facilities and our faculty to ensure that we provide a world-class education to our students.”
Now that Fairfield has accused Chubb of failing to pay its share of the settlement, the University has taken on a decidedly different view of the issue. Fairfield alleges that the school has incurred damages related to the breach of contract that have yet to be recovered.
“As a direct and proximate result of Chubb’s breaches of its insurance contracts, Fairfield has incurred damages, including…defense costs paid by Fairfield in connection with the ‘Perlitz II’ litigation that should have been paid by Chubb, lost time of administrators diverted from Fairfield’s core educational purpose and the attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred by Fairfield to pursue the defense coverage to which it is entitled,” the complaint says.
According to court records, a settlement conference for the lawsuit against Chubb has been scheduled for March 10.
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