Court Dismisses Time-Barred Claims in Significant Defense Victory
Shaub, Ahmuty, Citrin & Spratt, LLP recently secured a major win for our client, a religious institution, obtaining a pre-answer dismissal of a lawsuit involving allegations of abuse from 1981-82.
The plaintiff filed the case in March 2025, over 40 years later, and argued it was still timely under New York’s Child Victims Act (CVA). But he acknowledged that he missed the CVA’s special revival window, which closed three years before he filed.
Instead, he claimed the lawsuit was timely under CPLR 208(b), a law amended in 2019 that extends the time to bring child sexual abuse claims until a survivor turns 55.
Our team showed the court that CPLR 208(b) applies only prospectively to claims that were not already expired when the law was passed. Because the plaintiff’s claims had been time-barred for decades before 2019, the statute did not revive them.
The court agreed and dismissed the case in full.
