Morelli Ratner PC works with a wide variety of cases, but our primary focus is on:
When there are large numbers of claims associated with a single product, they may be part of a mass tort. It basically means that an act of negligence on the part of an individual or company resulted in injuring many people. Many factors are considered when deciding if a claim should be part of a mass tort.
On Thanksgiving, the New York Times reported that at least one of Jerry Sandusky’s accusers plans to sue the former Penn State assistant football coach for his alleged acts of sexual abuse and assault.
This accuser filed for injunctive relief to get a court to prevent Mr. Sandusky’s charity organization, Second Mile, from attempting to shelter its assets from litigation. Second Mile held more than $9 million in assets last year.
The accuser’s attorneys argue that Second Mile played a major role in enabling Mr. Sandusky’s alleged crimes by failing to inform law enforcement of the accusations it learned of, as well as failing to properly supervise Mr. Sandusky in his role at the organization.
Given the facts of the case – Mr. Sandusky founded in the organization himself in the 1990s, Mr. Sandusky is alleged to have used the organization to find boys whom he then abused, and the organization has known of concerns about Mr. Sandusky for at least the past decade – it should not be difficult to prove some liability on the part of the charity.
If anything, given the scope of the accusations against Mr. Sandusky, $9 million might prove a paltry sum to compensate potentially dozens of abused children.
According to the Times, the week before Thanksgiving, “Second Mile’s interim chief said the charity’s directors were considering closing the organization or transferring its programs, which primarily serve disadvantaged youths, to other nonprofit organizations.”
At this point, however, Second Mile has lost the moral authority to re-distribute its assets as it might prefer to. Hopefully soon, it will also lose the legal authority to do so. The courts will decide how to divide the money, which will probably end up being just a down payment on compensation and damages for those abused by Sandusky.
-Benedict P. Morelli and David S. Ratner
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