John C. Taylor

Taylor co-founded Taylor & Ring in 2002 to pursue major lawsuits on behalf of crime victims and other personal injury plaintiffs. The firm often pursues claims against large organizations accused of ignoring or enabling sexual abuse. It won $45.4 million against the County of Los Angeles in July 2018 and $25.3 million from the Westerly School of Long Beach in June 2018.

Taylor said a frequent problem with large institutional cases is the reluctance of witnesses to come forward to tell what they know. "The defense argument is often that people claim they didn't see anything." That line of defense was weakened in January 2020 when Taylor obtained a strong appellate opinion on the topic that revived a difficult case.

The issue arose when Taylor sued on behalf of client Adrienne McColl, who claimed a female adult employee of Los Angeles' Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro sexually abused her while she was a 16-year-old intern there. It was difficult to find witnesses. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed the case on summary judgment. McColl v. City of Los Angeles, BC61002 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Feb. 11, 2016).

But Taylor persisted at the Court of Appeal, which reversed and reinstated the lawsuit. Among other conclusions the panel noted that summary judgment was inappropriate and credibility determinations should be left to a jury. "Again, although several Cabrillo employees denied witnessing [incidents of closeness between McColl and her abuser], a jury, making all credibility determinations and drawing all inferences in favor of plaintiff, could reasonably conclude based on this evidence that these incidents would have caused an 'objectively reasonable person,' in a 'like position' to these Cabrillo staff members, to 'suspect child abuse or neglect,'" wrote Associate Justice Anne H. Egerton for a unanimous panel.

Said Taylor, "The court is telling us that blatant denials are not enough. Let a jury look at that." Among other evidence he had in his client's favor, he said, "There was a pretextual phone call in which the perpetrator admitted her acts. Even so, the district attorney decided not to prosecute."

That non-prosecution decision raised another problem that Taylor has encountered before in similar cases involving abuse within a female same-sex relationship. "There is a hesitation to prosecute an adult woman on same sex victims. DAs get cold feet. They think it is harder to get a conviction in such cases. But I have seen this kind of thing before, and I know that juries have no problem holding perpetrators and their schools responsible."

-- John Roemer