New York Office Obtains Summary Judgment For Summer Camp, Owners In Child Victims Act Case

(December 2023) - New York Associate Dean Pillarella recently obtained summary judgment in favor of a summer camp and its owners in a Child Victims Act matter in Supreme Court, Nassau County.

In M.E. v. Camp Summit of Summitville, the plaintiff alleged to have been sexually assaulted at the camp in the 1980s by a counselor. The plaintiff asserted numerous theories of liability, including negligent hiring, retention, supervision, and training, as well as a breach of the duty in loco parentis.

In support of the motion, Dean largely cited the plaintiff's deposition testimony to demonstrate the defendants' lack of prior notice of the counselor's sexual propensities. The plaintiff testified to exhibiting no signs of sexual abuse and that anyone observing him with the counselor would only have seen the two "getting along well." He further testified that the assaults occurred after lights-out and that the counselor attempted to hide his actions. The defendants testified to being "absolutely unaware" of any abuse and otherwise employing extensive security and supervision measures.

In opposition, the plaintiff argued that the counselor's "nude dancing episodes" in his and a co-counselor's presence raised a triable issue of fact as to prior notice and rendered the later assaults foreseeable. He further argued that the co-counselor failed to report this conduct, despite camp policy to the contrary, and thus was negligently trained.

In response, Dean argued that, as a matter of law, the alleged episodes were insufficiently similar in kind to the later assaults to evince prior notice because they were neither inherently violent nor sexual. In support, he cited plaintiff's characterization of the episodes as "humorous" and "locker room behavior." In the alternative, he argued that, even assuming arguendo that the episodes evinced prior notice, as a matter of agency law, no knowledge imputed to the defendants because, in withholding knowledge of the episodes, the co-counselor would have entirely abandoned the camp's interests.

Ultimately the court awarded the defendants summary judgment on all counts for lack of prior notice. In large part, it reasoned that, even if the counselor's "naked hijinks" were "highly inappropriate," they did not render sexual abuse foreseeable.