EVEN IF ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE OCCURRED OUTSIDE OF NEW YORK STATE
When SW filed a suit against The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) and others alleging entitlement to damages under the state’s Child Victims Act (CVA), the defendants countered that the claim was barred because the purported sexual abuse occurred in Yellowstone National Park – during a “cross-country bus trip” sponsored by a “branch” entity associated with the USCJ.
The USCJ and its co-defendants asserted that reviving SW’s claim was an “impermissible extraterritorial application of the statute,” and sought the litigation’s dismissal. After the New York County Supreme Court denied that request, the defendants appealed to the Appellate Division, First Department.
On its review, the AD1 was of the opinion that the CVA applied to conduct which constituted a sexual offense as defined by the state’s Penal Law, and that any territorial limitations that might have applied to that criminal statute, was not a basis to exclude a civil claim, particularly given the CVA’s wide-ranging ambit. The appellate court noted, in pertinent part:
CVA’s “plain language revived ‘every’ covered ‘civil claim or cause of action’ that would have been properly brought in New York in the first instance, of course subject to applicable provisions of the CPLR, including CPLR 202 …. Defendants' argument, which, if adopted, would exclude a certain set of those claims, is therefore without merit.”
Thus, even if the sexual abuse occurred extraterritorially, since SW was a New York resident, and the defendants' principal place of business was also in New York, the AD1 thought the litigation was not dismissible on that basis and affirmed the underlying determination.
Looks like the defendants lost some ground there ….
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DECISION