Metro

AIG wants alum judge off Horace Mann sex abuse case

Insurance companies locked in a legal battle with the elite Horace Mann School over $1 million in sex abuse settlements want to boot the judge from the case because he is an alum of the tarnished Bronx institution.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos graduated from the Riverdale school in 1958 . He has had at least one fellow alum clerk for him, sources told The Post.

Horace Mann sued three of its insurance companies — all divisions of AIG — in August after they refused to reimburse the school for the hush-hush settlement with two students who attended the school between 1993 and 1996.

The insurers’ attorney, Mark Errico, said he learned of the judge’s connection to the school almost six months after the case was filed when he received an email from a former student alerting him to the potential conflict of interest.

“An appearance of impropriety exists based on your honor’s status as an alumnus of Horace Mann,” Errico, attorney for the AIG insurers, argues in court papers filed with the judge on Feb. 7.

Errico asked the judge to voluntarily removed himself from the case to “preserve the public’ confidence that any decision rendered in this matter will be fair and impartial,” Errico says.

Horace Mann attorneys have said they will not ask Justice Ramos to step off the case, according to court papers.

Ramos served as a civil court judge for over 30 years. After Horace Mann he graduated New York University and Fordham Law School. He’s served on several ethics and professional conduct committees.

A court spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about why the judge did not immediately disclose his connection to Horace Mann.

The parties are due in court on Feb. 27 for a hearing on the recusal request.

More than 30 students have come forward with abuse allegations stretching from the 1970s through the 1990s, involving at least eight Horace Mann teachers.

In a shocking expose published in 2012, former student Amos Kamil revealed that his alma mater harbored sexual predator employees for decades.

Following the revelations, the school chose to avoid any “adverse publicity” the insurers claimed court papers.

The AIG divisions scoffed at compensating the Bronx school for the payments, saying they “are not guarantors of Horace Mann’s reputation.”

Among those who have attended the school are former governor and Eliot Spitzer, magazine publisher Si Newhouse and poet William Carlos Williams.

A rep for Horace Mann did not immediately comment.