Insurer Seeks Pass on Liability in Missing Nebraska Student Lawsuit

Nebraska’s insurance company is asking a judge to declare that it has no duty to pay any award made against the Nebraska State Colleges Board of Trustees in a lawsuit over the 2010 disappearance of a Peru State College student whose mother believes she was killed by a fellow student.

The request comes in the lawsuit filed by the mother of Tyler “Ty” Thomas, who was 19 when she disappeared after encountering Joshua Keadle, a fellow Peru State student now serving prison time for raping another teen.

Travelers Indemnity Co. notes the lawsuit’s claim that college officials violated Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools. The company says in its motion that its policy contains an exclusion keeping it from covering injury resulting from gender discrimination.