Senior Judge Adele Grubbs signed a consent judgment June 9 ordering defendant Roger Stifflemire to pay $345 million to the former students. Grubbs retired from Cobb County Superior Court and took the case for Floyd County Superior Court after all the judges there recused. The order said Stifflemire has executed an assignment of insurance and claims to the plaintiffs.

The defense attorney is Robert Smalley III of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton. Smalley did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

"It does not end the litigation, but it's a resolution and it sends us over to the insurance side," Penn said of the consent order. He said the order allows his team to seek payment from all of the insurance companies covering Darlington in the years at issue. The plaintiffs' team includes Sachi Cole and Kevin Ketner of Penn Law.

"From a legal perspective, the Darlington case is significant for coverage of childhood sexual molestation claims," Penn said. "It's a huge issue all over the country."

Penn noted he also has similar cases pending against scouting and church groups with insurance coverage in play. "I think it's going to give us some answers," he said of the work at hand, particularly regarding whether these types of damages will be covered under institutional insurance policies.

"I think it's pretty legally significant," Penn said. "At least the issue is."

The plaintiffs filed a 220-page amended complaint in Floyd County Superior Court on March 4. They alleged their case "brings to light a history of childhood sexual abuse and sexual predation" by those responsible for students. The abuse alleged took place in some cases 40 years ago at one of  "Georgia's most elite, prestigious private boarding schools."

The complaint alleged that rather than acting "swiftly to protect students by investigating and immediately notifying appropriate civil and criminal authorities to put a stop to this egregious behavior,' authorities ignored and denied the abuse.

"These deliberate, negligent, and reckless actions and policies directly caused and otherwise resulted in a sustained pattern of childhood sexual abuse of students spanning over at least a twenty-year period and magnified that harm when old wounds were opened through new attempts to cover up and mislead," the complaint alleged.

Penn said his clients are not trying to hurt the school, but to help others in similar circumstances.

"They're not saying, 'let's shut them down.' They're saying, 'let's have an awareness and make sure this never happens again at Darlington.'"

Penn said the matter has been "amicably and satisfactorily" resolved with Darlington under the confidential settlement. "We're moving forward against these insurance companies," he added.

Penn said research shows that survivors of childhood sexual abuse typically keep their trauma a secret until they reach adulthood – often middle age, as happened with his clients in this case.

"We are very committed to what we do," Penn said. "We try to handle the kind of cases that will make a difference to a lot of people – not just our clients but everybody across the state hopefully. It's so important to raise awareness and just get the information out there. This is what happens. It's not just a one-off thing. It's happened over and over in our society, and we've got to do something to correct it."