Lawsuit Combatting Sexual Abuse in the Modeling Industry Will Go Forward
National non-profit legal advocacy organization Public Justice, along with the law firms Hutchinson Black and Cook LLC and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, has revived a sexual assault lawsuit under New York’s Child Victims Act brought by American model Carré Otis. Despite the defendant’s dogged attempts to get the case thrown out of court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing the case to proceed, ruling that the location of an assault does not determine whether a survivor can access justice under New York’s Child Victims Act.
As a teenager, Otis, whose legal name is Carré Sutton, was recruited by a New York-based modeling company, Elite Model Management, which then sent her to Paris. There, as alleged in the Complaint, she was sexually abused by the head of Elite’s European agencies. Years later, New York passed the Child Victims Act, which allowed victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring claims that otherwise would have been “time barred”— that is, too old to bring to court. Invoking the Child Victims Act, Otis brought claims against her abuser and an Elite executive who knew she would likely be assaulted by the agency head in Paris yet sent her anyway. That executive convinced a trial court to throw out the case, arguing that the abuse happened outside of New York, so the Child Victims Act didn’t apply.
Otis added Public Justice to her legal team to lead an appeal to the Second Circuit. On November 4, 2024, the appeals court sided with Otis and revived the lawsuit, holding that the Child Victims Act protects survivors who were New York residents at the time of their abuse, even if the abuse occurred elsewhere. Otis’s case will now proceed at the trial court amid a broader political push in New York for basic workplace protections in the modeling industry.
Otis’s appeal received support from the Model Alliance and the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which filed an amicus brief with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.
Carré Otis, board member of the Model Alliance, said, “This is a huge win for all survivors. The rampant sexual abuse of young people in the fashion industry has gone largely unchecked for decades. Now, I urge Governor Hochul to sign the Fashion Workers Act into law to prevent this abuse from happening in the first place.”
The Fashion Workers Act is a groundbreaking piece of legislation that aims to close the legal loophole that allows model management companies to escape regulation and create basic labor protections for models, including greater financial transparency and protections against harassment, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. Introduced in 2022 by the Model Alliance, the bill passed the Senate and the Assembly and now awaits Governor Hochul’s signature.
Alexandra Brodsky, senior attorney at Public Justice, said: “The Second Circuit got the law right. In doing so, it kept the courthouse doors open not only for Carré but also for other survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including other New York models trafficked and assaulted out of state.”
John Clune, partner attorney at Hutchinson, Black and Cook, LLC, said, “While we’re thrilled to move this case forward, many others were not able to bring their claims due to minor differences in their cases. We will bring Carré’s case in their honor. But models don’t just want lawsuits. They want to pursue their dreams in a safe working environment. The Fashion Workers Act would be a big step in that direction.”
