Nine Former MTA Students Settle with YU in Sexual Abuse Lawsuit; Counsel Hopes for More Settlements to Come
Nine former students of Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA) suing the university and numerous other defendants as part of a sexual abuse lawsuit settled their charges Sept. 10. Details about the settlement are not currently public.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019 and at its height joined by 48 former students, alleges that MTA principal George Finkelstein, faculty member Macy Gordon and dorm counselor Richard Andron sexually abused dozens of students over the course of decades between the 1950s and ’90s with the knowledge of high ranking high school and university officials, who failed to take action. The lawsuit was filed following the dismissal of two federal lawsuits in 2013 and 2015 by 19 and 33 former students, respectively.
At the time, New York law only allowed victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek civil damages until the age of 23, leading the courts to reject the lawsuits. In 2019, New York passed the Child Victims Act (CVA), which extended the statute of limitations to the age of 55 and removed it entirely for a one-year period, during which the current lawsuit was brought.
On Sept. 6, the lead attorney for most of the plaintiffs, Kevin Mulhearn, filed a document with Justice Alexander Tisch, the New York County Supreme Court justice assigned to the case, informing him that a number of plaintiffs had agreed on a settlement with the university and other defendants. Mulhearn also expressed hope that a number of other settlements would be announced in the future.
“Please be advised that a number of Plaintiffs have reached settlement agreements with the Defendants,” Mulhearn wrote to Tisch. “We are continuing to engage in a settlement dialogue and hope that we can report the settlement of a number of other claims in the near future.”
Mulhearn also represented the plaintiff in the recently concluded lawsuit against YU for allegedly covering up a student’s sexual assault.
Mulhearn and YU both declined to comment on the settlement.
Before Sept. 10, no plaintiffs had previously settled with the university, and 39 plaintiffs remain in the lawsuit. Less than one percent of civil cases in the United States are resolved with a jury trial, with the vast majority being settled by the parties outside of court.
In 2013, The Commentator reported that the original lawsuit brought by 19 former students seeked a total of $680 million in compensation, nearly as high as all of YU’s expenses combined in the 2022 fiscal year. It is unclear how much damages are being claimed in the current lawsuit. AIG Insurance, YU’s insurance company, said in 2013 that they may not cover damages or settlements in the lawsuit. It is unclear whether insurance would cover YU’s settlements in the current case.
The current lawsuit resumed after three years of delay in April, after Tisch rejected YU’s motion to dismiss the case filed in 2021. YU argued that the CVA was unconstitutional and that the dismissal of the previous lawsuits in federal court protected YU from being sued again in state court.
The ruling by Tisch allowed for the discovery process, which had been stayed while the motion was pending, to continue. Discovery is the part of a civil lawsuit in which parties are permitted to demand relevant evidence from each other before going to trial. The decision by the judge potentially allowed for thousands of hours of transcripts and other documents from YU’s 2013 investigation of sexual abuse at MTA to become public.
The document filed by Mulhearn on Sept. 6 requested that the judge extend the previous discovery schedule for his clients while more of them negotiated for settlements with YU. The request does not apply to the plaintiffs represented by other attorneys.
The lawsuit lists YU, MTA, the estate of former YU President Rabbi Norman Lamm, who passed away in 2020, former Vice President of RIETS Rabbi Robert Hirt and over sixty members of the YU and MTA board of trustees as defendants.
Gordon, who according to the lawsuit, sexually abused and violently sodomized multiple students between the 1950s and ‘80s, died in 2017 in Israel without ever being charged for any crimes. Finkelstein and Andron still live in Israel, outside of the New York courts’ civil jurisdiction.
YU is being represented in this case by the law firm Seyfarth Shaw.
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Photo Caption: Zysman Hall, the main building of MTA High School
Photo Credit: The Commentator
