Held & Hines Scores a Big Victory Against Equinox

In a First Department, Appellate Division Decision, the Court, on October 8, 2024, held that Equinox is responsible for the safety of their patrons and that Equinox failed to do enough to protect them. Specifically, the Court held, “New York courts, however, have never required prior incidents to have been committed by the same assailant or even be of the same type of conduct to which the plaintiff was subjected (see Jacqueline S. v City of New York, 81 NY2d 288, 294 [1993]; Miller v State of New York, 62 NY2d 506, 508- 509 [1984]; Nallan v Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 50 NY2d 507, 519-520 [1980]). Although some of the incidents did involve Equinox members walking in on seemingly consensual sexual behavior, at least three of the other gym members reported that they had been sexually harassed, including the member who complained mere weeks before the assault on plaintiff (see Baez v 2347 Morris Realty, Inc., 69 AD3d 480, 480-481 [1st Dept 2010])… The record here is devoid of any evidence demonstrating that the training and practices cited in the affidavit of Equinox’s senior director for club operations were actually implemented (see Rivera v 1652 Popham Assoc., LLC, 31 AD3d 297, 298 [1st Dept 2006] [“Defendants provided no building records to substantiate their vague claims of regular maintenance”]). Furthermore, there is evidence in the record that Equinox’s “zero-tolerance” policy was only enforced when employees witnessed the offending behavior. We find that whether plaintiff’s alleged assault was foreseeable to Equinox and whether Equinox implemented adequate security measures to decrease the likelihood of such incidents are questions of fact and plaintiff’s negligence claim should advance to a jury trial. We cannot say, as a matter of law, that another gym member allegedly assaulting plaintiff against the backdrop of multiple complaints of inappropriate sexual conduct inside the steam room was “extraordinary under the circumstances or not foreseeable in the normal course of events” (see Scurry, 39 NY3d at 457 [alteration and internal quotation marks omitted]).