Manhattan, NY – In what has been labeled as the first lawsuit of its kind in New York state, the parents of man who says he was sexually abused at one of Yeshiva University High Schools the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy in Manhattan by staff are now suing the school for deceptive practices.
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Israel and Chaya Gutman are suing the school for deceptive advertising by stating the school was a safe place for children, according to the New York Post (http://bit.ly/1D62ixc). Their son, who is now in his late 40s and lives in Israel, was part of a $680 million lawsuit involving 34 unnamed former students who claimed they endured sexual abuse by former officials of the school between 1969 and 1991.
That lawsuit was dismissed because the plaintiffs were past their three-year statute of limitations from when the alleged abuse occurred and when they filed the lawsuit. Now the Gutmans are taking a different approach.
The Gutman’s suit states, “Most savvy Jewish educational consumers… would have never imagined that [the school], despite its glowing and positive impressions, would have permitted their son to endure an educational experience… that was consistently threatened, and often stained, by known sexual predators in high positions of authority.”
Their lawyer says the statute of limitations for the Gutmans should start when they found out about the abuse of their son, which was in Dec. 2012, when a newspaper article was published in The Forward about the abuse allegations; an article in which then Yeshiva University Chancellor Norman Lamm admitted that two rabbis were dismissed quietly after they were accused of sexual abuse. Their son told them at that time he was one of the abused.
The Gutmans say their son was sexually abused by former principal Rabbi George Finkelstiein and Richard Andron, a former university student, in the early 1980s.
Other ex-students have alleged being raped by former teacher Rabbi Macy Gordon, who was accused of sodomy.
The Gutmans are seeking undisclosed money damages for pain and suffering, and reimbursement for tuition and other expenses paid to the school.
Information taken from the New York Post
This is a greedy lawyer who doesn’t want to talk no for an answer. He lost this case one, lost again on appeal. Now he has a new shtick. He’s grasping at straws. At this point, YU should sue HIM for legal expenses.
Always a lawyer around for these nonsense lawsuits. The major case was dismissed and this should be thrown out too. Everyone feels bad for these abused kids but we are talking 50 years ago.
Lol. Suing for “pain and suffering”… Sounds ironic to me considering the whole lawsuit is based on the fact they only found out two years ago and are within the statute of limitations.
Besides the fact that the entire law of the statute of limitations, is categorically wrong and the law should be changed, to not have any limits or at least much longer limits;
It happens to be, that the litigation this time, is right and will win because it is no longer a sexual abuse case but case of Fraud and fooling consumers with a non-functional product, namely a so called “school” which undermines students instead of building their education. Basically delivering a faulty product knowingly and intentionally.
I’m confident they will win this case.
This is a sound claim. The SOL only starts when you know about the cause for damages. Lets say you pay a contractor to build a house. He uses less concrete than he should have in pouring the foundation. The SOL passes after five years. But you only discover the problem when your foundation collapses ten years later. the law says you count from when you knew, not from when the crime was committed.
When a parent pays tuition they are expect that the principal is a religious model, not a menuval who molests their son. They only discovered it recently. Why shouldn’t the parent be entitled to get their tuition back? If the school can keep the tuition it is mamash “harotzachtah vigam yuroshtah.”
This is ridiculous but you can be sure the abuse “advocates” will be out in droves soon,