A ruling against movie director Paul Haggis may very well help to make it easier to file sexual assault lawsuits in New York City.
A four-judge appeals court panel in Manhattan’s Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled against Haggis (director of Crash, writer of Million Dollar Baby) on a sexual assault lawsuit that was filed by a publicist, Haleigh Breest, who previously worked with Haggis.
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The decision says that a New York City law that prohibits “animus based on the victim’s gender” can be applied to an accusation of a forced sexual act. This would let plaintiffs use hatred of the victim’s gender as a sole piece of evidence to file sexual assault claims. There is a seven-year statute of limitations, and accusers would have no more than five years to file their respective suits. For plaintiffs that win their cases, recovery of legal expenditures is also part of the law.
Paul Haggis has said that the encounter between the two in January 2013 was consensual. The court did not rule on the matter of Breest having proved her case, which could likely go to a jury trial.
The ruling could have a large impact in the #MeToo age. “This is a particular moment in history when judges, just like the rest of us and the public, are very aware that there is a huge social problem for victims of gender-motivated violence, and the concerns that motivated the City Council to pass this law in 2000 are sort of even more present today than they were then,” said Zoe Salzman, Breest’s lawyer.
The ruling goes against Haggis’s argument that the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Law should not apply in the case because, per him, “there was no evidence of hatred against women as a group.” The court’s Justice Peter H. Moulton wrote, “Without consent, sexual acts such as those alleged in the complaint are a violation of the victim’s bodily autonomy and an expression of the perpetrator’s contempt for that autonomy. Coerced sexual activity is dehumanizing and fear-inducing. Malice or ill will based on gender is apparent from the alleged commission of the act itself.”
Seth Zuckerman, a lawyer representing Haggis, did not say if the ruling will be appealed to New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
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