1994's Expensive Lawsuit Involving the Berkeley School District

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Published news story by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, August 1, 1994, East Bay Journal, “Berkeley: Harassment suit may cost school district”. This story I wrote a little more than four months after my first story about the juvenile sex abuse case involving an accused Berkeley teacher and a student there.

This follow-up story involves the legal costs associated with case on the Berkeley school district and how the insurance company for the district, General Star Indemnity Co. of Connecticut, refused to cover those litigation expenses. I was unable to get an estimate of those legal costs for the story.

In July of 2009, it shines some light on how some of California’s budget problems started years ago, why they kept on and remain today. That is, it shows some of the expenses that have -- over and over again –- crunched happily on California’s municipal, county and state budgets. I cannot in 2009 easily find information about how this incredible 1994 case was resolved, or if it was.

In this 1994 case, it was a matter of General Star Indemnity bringing a lawsuit on Berkeley’s district. Here was part of what the insurer argued in 1994:

• The policy between General Star and the BUSD does not cover alleged Title IX civil rights violations against the two girls.

• The company should get reimbursement for monies already paid for the defense of the school district in court.

• The company will not pay for bodily injury to minors out of “actual or threatened abuse or molestation” while in the “care, custody or control” of the school district.

The insurance policy, attached to court documents, clearly stated the company will not pay for suits involving molestation, threatened abuse or the negligent retention of any employee who engages in abuse.

The case began when the teacher, Charles Hamilton, was accused of creating a hostile environment for two female students because of his alleged molestation of them.

Former district business manager Anton Jungher was also named in the lawsuit for harassing the girls’ mother, who worked for the district.