Federal Insurance Company is asking a federal judge to limit what it owes the Marianist Province of the United States in connection with four childhood sexual abuse lawsuits.
The insurer filed its complaint on April 28, 2026 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The Marianist Province, named as the defendant, runs a Cape May, New Jersey retreat center where four Jane Doe plaintiffs say they were abused as children in the 1970s.
The underlying suits, filed in Cape May County Superior Court, allege sexual abuse by Father John J. Sheehan and/or Brother Albert Koch between roughly 1974 and 1979. The plaintiffs accuse the Marianist Province of negligence, vicarious liability, negligent supervision and retention, and premises liability.
Federal's pitch to the court starts with a paperwork problem. The insurer says it issued a Comprehensive General Liability policy to the Marianists Society Inc. running "From August 1, 1969 To Until Cancelled," cancelled effective August 1, 1979, and an Umbrella Excess Liability policy covering Marianist of Ohio, Inc. and Marianists Society Inc. from September 1, 1973 to August 1, 1974. But Federal can only find declaration pages, endorsements and other policy fragments - not the full policies. The Marianist Province, the complaint says, has not produced complete copies either.
That matters because, Federal argues, the burden falls on the policyholder to prove the terms of the policies and that the underlying claims fall within them. The insurer wants a declaration that the Marianist Province has not met that burden on policy periods, limits, insuring agreements, conditions, exclusions or definitions.
Federal is also asking the court to lock in the basics of what the policies, in its view, would have said. The insurer says they were occurrence-based, and the policy forms it used in those years typically defined "occurrence" as an "event, or continuous or repeated exposure to conditions, which unexpectedly and unintentionally cause personal injury or injury or destruction of tangible property during the policy period." The forms also typically excluded bodily injury that was expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured.
On limits, Federal cites what it has located: $300,000 "for bodily injury liability for each occurrence" on the primary, and $1,000,000 "in respect to each occurrence" and "in the Aggregate where applicable" on the umbrella. Federal argues, in the alternative, that all four suits arise from a single occurrence - which would cap coverage at one "each occurrence" limit, not four.
Federal also wants out of indemnity. Because the plaintiffs allege the Marianist Province knew or should have known about the abusers' propensities, Federal frames the harm as foreseeable - and in its view, expected or intended from the insured's standpoint, putting it outside the occurrence definition and inside the exclusion.
Then there is the money already spent. Federal has been defending the Marianist Province under reservation of rights letters dated June 8, 2021, February 15, 2024, September 5, 2024, and January 9, 2025. If the court finds any underlying claim falls outside coverage, Federal wants its defense costs back.
The allegations have not been tested in court. The Marianist Province has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
