“Utterly Intolerable”

The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department reversed the dismissal of a defaulted complaint and reinstated the matter for a hearing on damages

In her uncontroverted complaint and testimony, plaintiff averred that defendant Santoriella used his position of authority and confidence as an attorney to gain her trust, and then discriminated against her by withholding the legal services she sought in connection with litigation related to a sexual assault of plaintiff and using the pretext of offering such services to harass and subject her to unwelcome sexual conduct and advances. She alleged that he accomplished this by asking her unnecessarily intrusive and humiliating questions which were irrelevant to his representation of her; by continuing to do so even after she told him that his questions were exacerbating her post-traumatic stress disorder and causing her extreme distress; by requesting that she send him photographs and videos which he then used for his own sexual gratification; and by sending her unsolicited sexually explicit photographs of his girlfriend.

Plaintiff had established her claim under New York discrimination law

 In particular, defendant Santoriella’s abuse of his position of power and the attorney-client relationship in responding to plaintiff’s attempt to obtain legal representation relating to a prior sexual assault by sexually harassing her was “so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community” (Howell, 81 NY2d at 122 [internal quotation marks omitted])

(Mike Frisch)