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A latest ruling by the California Supreme Court in a sexual abuse case against USA Taekwondo will help athletes who have been abused by coaches, lawyers say.
The court moved on April 1 to adopt a two-part test that would determine whether an organization can be sued for injuries sustained by a third-party. The same test was previously used to investigate the case in a lower court of appeals.
Because of the unanimous ruling, USA Twaekondo must face a lawsuit brought by three underage athletes who claim that the organization had a duty to protect them from the sexual abuse they faced from their coach, Marc Gitelman, Law360 reports.
Gitelman was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for raping the three athletes.
Top Class Actions covers class action lawsuits and institutional sex abuse lawsuits like this one. If you or a loved one were subjected to sexual abuse while participating in a youth organization, you may qualify for a free claim review.
The ruling supports lower appeals courts’ findings, which established that USA Twaekondo had a duty of care to its athletes.
However, as part of the two-part test, the justice said that a trial court must first establish whether a governing body had a special relationship with the third-party or victim. If a relationship did exist, a multipronged test must be applied by the court.
Consequently, in a blow to the athletes, the court upheld the decision that the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), which is the national governing body for taekwondo, did not have a duty of care to its athletes because the test failed to find a relationship between it and Gitelman, Law360 reports.
Stephen Estey of Estey & Bomberger LLP, who represents the athletes, told Law360 that the opinion would go a long way towards helping protect minor athletes from sexual abuse.
“[The California Supreme Court] states unequivocally that youth sports entities must take steps to protect our young athletes from sexual abuse from predator coaches,” he said.
Jeff Anderson & Associates PA attorney Mike Reck, who specializes in institutional child sexual abuse cases, told Law360 that the decision was significant as it was the first to state that national governing bodies of sports could hold a duty of care to athletes harmed by a third-party.
“Many of these cases have worked their way to the right outcome, but what this case does is streamline it and says as a threshold issue, if you regulate a sport, you have a duty,” he told Law360, adding that the judgment has now become the default position and streamlines the process for courts to impose duty of care decisions.
“This is a very clean and bright-line statement that in California, child protection is now a prominent concern, and the duty of child care organizations is very, very clear now.”
On the flip side, attorney David M. Arbogast of Arbogast Law told Law360 that he was disappointed that the court didn’t conduct a legal analysis of the claims against the USOC. He said the move gave USOC a “get out of jail free card.”
“They ruled on the narrowest possible point, which is certainly in their power to do, but whether it’s right or not is another question.”
The athletes are represented by Jon R. Williams of Williams Iagmin LLP, Stephen J. Estey of Estey & Bomberger LLP, B. Robert Allard of Corsiglia McMahon & Allard LLP, and Kenneth C. Turek of Turek Law PC.
USAT is represented by Mitchell C. Tilner, Steven S. Fleischman, and Yen-Shyang Tseng of Horvitz & Levy LLP, and Patrick E. Stockalper of Kjar McKenna Stockalper.
The USOC is represented by Beth S. Brinkmann, Mitch A. Kamin, and Carolyn J. Kubota of Covington & Burling LLP, and Douglas J. Collodel and Margaret M. Holm of Clyde & Co.
The USA Twaekowndo Sexual Assault Lawsuit is Yazmin Brown et al. v. USA Taekwondo et al., Case No. S259216, in the Supreme Court of California.
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