In Mahn v. Lawrence N. Mullman et al, Index No. 952263/23, Case No. 2024–03039, 2025 WL 408690 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept. Feb. 6, 2025), the Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed a lower court’s determination that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (EFAA) did not invalidate the parties’ arbitration agreement.
From the decision:
In the underlying complaint, plaintiff alleges various causes of action against defendants, all of them torts, including an alleged sexual assault that occurred while she was employed by defendant Major, Lindsey & Africa between 2005 and 2009. Plaintiff and Major, Lindsey & Africa signed an agreement in 2005 that, among other things, required disputes between the parties to be submitted to arbitration with limited carve outs not applied here. By its plain terms, the arbitration agreement covers plaintiff’s claims.
The court correctly concluded that the arbitration clause in this case is not invalidated by the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (EFAA), as the causes of action in the complaint all accrued prior to the effective date of the EFAA (9 USC §§ 401, 402, as added by Pub L 117–90, 136 U.S. Stat 26; see O’Sullivan v Jacaranda Club, LLC, 224 AD3d 629, 629–630 [1st Dept 2024] ).
The court further noted that the enactment of the New York State Adult Survivors Act (see CPLR 214–j) does not change its analysis, reasoning that “[w]hile the Adult Survivors Act revived a certain class of otherwise potentially time-barred causes of action, it did not change the fact that the causes of action accrued prior to the enactment of the EFAA.”