USC to pay $842M to sex abuse plaintiffs

USC agreed Thursday to pay out $842 million to settle hundreds of sexual abuse claims against former university gynecologist George Tyndall. The settlement is the largest for a sexual abuse case in U.S. history.

Each of the 702 plaintiffs will be entitled to an average of $1.2 million -- about 12 times more than what thousands of other Tyndall accusers are entitled to receive from a 2020 federal class settlement, in which USC agreed to pay $215 million to resolve the claims.

With Thursday's settlement, which will be paid out in two installments in August 2021 and August 2022, the total USC has agreed to pay Tyndall's accusers exceeds $1.1 billion.

In a statement, USC president Carol L. Folt said, "I am deeply sorry for the pain experienced by these valued members of the USC community. We appreciate the courage of all who came forward and hope this much needed resolution provides some relief to the women abused by George Tyndall."

Tyndall's attorney, N. Denise Taylor of Taylor Demarco LLP, said, "The settlement was negotiated by and between the attorneys for plaintiffs and USC, and included Dr. Tyndall as an employee of USC. Dr. Tyndall has at all times and continues to deny any wrongdoing."

Thursday's settlement is significant because it is much higher than the one USC reached last year in the federal class action, said Mike Arias, whose firm Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Torrijos LLP worked with Janet, Janet and Suggs LLC to represent 136 of the plaintiffs in the Los Angeles County Superior Court case. The state case is made up of individual actions for each plaintiff.

In the federal settlement, claimants were able to recover money by opting into one of three tiers, and were entitled to receive a minimum of $2,500 or a maximum of $250,000 each. Lucy Chi v. University of Southern California et al., 2:18-cv-04258-SVW-GJS (C.D. Cal., filed May 21, 2018).

All 702 of the plaintiffs in the state case had opted out of the federal settlement. About 60 more had also opted out of the federal settlement, Arias estimated, but they settled out earlier.

Arias had objected to the class action, he said, "because that class action was settled right after filing and forced a lot of women to make a decision about their future."

"The settlement was reached rather quickly without any discovery. Thousands of women had to make a decision which we said they shouldn't have been allowed to make until after significant discovery had taken place," he said.

Gloria Allred of Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, who represented 72 of the accusers with attorneys at Carpenter Zuckerman & Rowley LLP, held a news conference Thursday with four of her clients.

"We congratulate our clients for deciding to opt out of the federal class action settlement approved more than two years ago, and instead making the decision to continue to litigate the case against USC with us," she said. "The survivors in the federal class action settlement, who endured the most severe form of sexual abuse, will receive on average $96,000. ... The survivors who declined to accept the class action settlement and continued to litigate will receive an average of $1.2 million. Our clients obviously made the right choice."

Tyndall was a gynecologist at USC from the late 1980s until 2016, and retired with a financial settlement in 2017 following an investigation of his conduct by USC. In 2018, thousands of people brought claims of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment against Tyndall. He was charged with 29 felonies related to sexual misconduct in 2019, and is under house arrest.

In a statement, Nicole Haynes, one of the plaintiffs covered by Thursday's settlement said, "This is tremendous vindication for all the women who suffered abuse at the hands of a disgusting doctor who had to endure inaction and a cover-up by USC."

The court appointed attorneys at Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Torrijos LLP and Manly, Stewart & Finaldi as co-liaison counsel for the plaintiffs.

Counsel for USC included Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Fraser Watson Croutch LLP, while Taylor Demarco LLP represented Tyndall as an employee of USC. Jane Doe 3 et al. v. University of Southern California et al., BC715163 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jul. 30, 2018).

Los Angeles County Judge Daniel Buckley and mediator Jeffrey Krivis helped mediate the case, according to Mike Arias, managing partner at Arias Sanguinetti.

Beong-Soo Kim, USC senior vice president and general counsel, said, "Reaching this settlement was absolutely the right thing to do. The parties are grateful to Jeff Krivis and Judge Dan Buckley for helping guide the mediation to a successful outcome. The university is very glad to be able to close this chapter and move forward as a community."