Joe Postel Wins Judgment in a Sangamon County Coverage Case Involving Alleged Abuse by a Police Officer of a Minor

Joe Postel won judgment on the pleadings in which John Doe filed suit against Lindenhurst and its former police officer, alleging that the former officer sexually abused him while he was a minor and a participant in Lindenhurst’s police explorers program, and that Lindenhurst negligently failed to supervise the officer and protect John Doe. At the time of the alleged abuse, Lindenhurst was a member of the Illinois Municipal League Risk Management Association, which is a shared self-insurance pool of Illinois municipalities. The coverage grants then in effect excluded coverage for any sexual abuse claims.

The Association filed a declaratory judgment action against the officer and Lindenhurst. The officer did not appear and the court defaulted him. Lindenhurst argued that the exclusion only applied to the individual that actually committed the sexual abuse, not to the municipality accused of failing to supervise that individual. On August 26, 2019, the court, Judge John Madonia, disagreed, noting that the exclusion applied to all claims involving sexual abuse, without limiting itself to the actual perpetrator of the abuse. The court entered judgment on the pleadings for the Association.