Reavis Page Jump to Argue First Department Appeal Under New York’s Child Victims Act
On Thursday, October 19, at 2:00 p.m., oral arguments will be held before the New York Appellate Division, First Department, in the case of Jane Doe v. Wilhelmina Models, Inc., Cal Tan LLC and New Sunshine LLC. Reavis Page Jump LLP represents the plaintiff and RPJ attorney Gregory Feit will present the argument. This case implicates New York’s Child Victims Act (the “CVA”), which revives claims of sexual abuse against minors that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. The main issues on appeal are (1) whether the CVA applies to claims arising from abuse that occurred outside the State of New York, and (2) whether minors who were under 18 years of age (but over 16) at the time of the abuse can revive claims under statutes that prohibit conduct constituting sexual performance or sexual offenses against children under 16 years of age.
The context of the dispute is the systemic abuse of children in the modeling industry. Plaintiff Jane Doe is one such victim. Plaintiff claims that she moved to New York City at the age of 16 to pursue what had already been a promising career. In 1993, she went to a casting call put on by Cal Tan LLC and New Sunshine, LLC (together, the “Cal Tan Defendants”) in New York, at which she was selected for a photo shoot in Mexico. At the shoot, the Cal Tan Defendants took hundreds of nude and semi-nude photographs of Doe in sexually suggestive poses, some of which were distributed throughout the world as part of an advertising campaign. Plaintiff alleges that over the course of the five-day photo shoot, she was sexually abused by the Cal Tan Defendants’ makeup artist and Artistic Director.
Later that year, Doe, barely 17 years old and having recovered enough from the trauma she suffered at the hands of the Cal Tan Defendants, entered into a modeling agreement with Defendant-Respondent Wilhelmina Models, Inc., a preeminent modeling agency. Wilhelmina, although promising to take care of the underaged Doe, allegedly directed its photographers to photograph Doe naked and in highly sexualized positions, and one of those photographers sexually molested her.
After the enactment of the CVA, Doe brought this lawsuit under the Act in December 2019, hoping to share her story and shed light on the sexual abuse of minors within the modeling industry. In 2023, in an unreasoned opinion, the trial court dismissed her claims on the purported grounds that she did not meet the requirements of the CVA. This appeal followed.
The issues on the appeal involve important and novel issues of statutory interpretation under the CVA. If Plaintiff prevails, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds will clearly fall within the protection of the statute and the applicability of the CVA to abuse against New York residents, that occurred outside of New York State, will be confirmed. The argument will be live streamed and can be accessed at the following link: Unified Court System (nycourts.gov)