HUMPHREY v. USA GYMNASTICS

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedSeptember 17, 2021
Docket1:20-cv-02522
StatusUnknown

This text of HUMPHREY v. USA GYMNASTICS (HUMPHREY v. USA GYMNASTICS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
HUMPHREY v. USA GYMNASTICS, (S.D. Ind. 2021).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA INDIANAPOLIS DIVISION

TERIN HUMPHREY, ) ) Appellant, ) ) v. ) No. 1:20-cv-02522-SEB-MG ) USA GYMNASTICS, ) ) Appellee. ) ) ) TORT CLAIMANTS COMMITTEE, ) ) Interested Party. )

ORDER ON BANKRUPTCY APPEAL This is an appeal from a final order of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana denying Appellant Terin Humphrey's Motion to Allow Late Filed Claim to be Treated as Timely Filed. The bar date to file claims against the above- captioned debtor, USA Gymnastics, was April 29, 2019. On July 30, 2020, Appellant filed a belated claim followed by a motion to treat her late-filed claim as timely. On August 26, 2020, the Bankruptcy Court heard and denied Appellant's motion. Appellant has now appealed that ruling.1 For the reasons explicated below, the Bankruptcy Court's judgment is AFFIRMED. Factual Background

1 We granted Child USA's motion for leave to participate as Amicus Curiae [Dkt. 18] in support of Appellant's bankruptcy appeal [Dkt. 19]. Background of Appellant's Claim Terin Humphrey ("Appellant") was born on August 14, 1986 and was a member of USA Gymnastics (USAG) since 1989 to the present. Dkt. 8-2 at 93.2 Appellant enjoyed a

successful gymnastics career with USAG, including having won two silver medals in the sport at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Id. at 94. Prior to her participation in the Olympics, Appellant was sent by her coaches to be examined by USAG's doctor Larry Nassar for a hip injury she had incurred during the July 2002 U.S. Classic Gymnastics Meet in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Id. During this examination, Appellant

was sexually abused by Dr. Nassar via an ungloved digital manipulation of her vagina. Id. She was abused again in the same fashion on a separate occasion during the meet, each encounter lasting approximately fifteen minutes. Id. at 93. Appellant was fifteen years of age. Id. Appellant stipulates that she knew of the pendency of the bankruptcy action as

well as the bar date for the filing of claims. Her knowledge and awareness stemmed, at least in part, from her role on the Debtor's Athletes' Council from 2009 to approximately 2019. The Council's purpose is to "share the concerns of athletes with representatives from USA Gymnastics and advocate on behalf of the athletes they serve." See Dkt. 6 at 17.3 Appellant does not dispute that she knew of the bankruptcy and the claims date

2 Citations to Dkt. 8-2 and Dkt.14-1 reference the CM/ECF pagination numbers in the appendices attached to Appellant's and Appellee's briefs under this cause number. 3 Appellee highlights the importance of Appellant's position and the knowledge she would have possessed by virtue of that position during the relevant period when the Nassar investigation was unfolding. Dkt. 6 at 8. Appellee specifically notes that Appellant "had a unique position in USA Gymnastics to understand the history of what Mr. Nassar had done and the impact that other deadline. Rather, she maintains that she did not experience any physical and emotional effects of Larry Nassar's victimization of her until she became pregnant with her first

child in May of 2019, well past the bar date. Dkt. 8-2 at 94. Throughout her pregnancy, from May 2019 through January 2020, Appellant recounts having experienced severe anxiety whenever she was touched on her stomach as well as during pregnancy-related pelvic examinations. Her anxiety was heightened whenever a male doctor examined her. Id. During childbirth and thereafter up to the present, Appellant says she has suffered from distressing memories and flashbacks of the sexual abuse by Dr. Nassar. Id. She pegs

her initial recognition of these acts as sexual abuse to the beginning of her pregnancy. Id. Dr. Steven A. Elig conducted an independent medical psychiatric evaluation of Appellant on July 18, 2020 on the basis of which he prepared a report detailing his findings and opinions. Id. at 96–97. Dr. Elig observed that Appellant was experiencing the following symptoms: intrusion / reexperiencing distressing memories, avoidance,

negative distorted cognitions about herself and the world, hyperarousal, and depression. Id. at 98. Based on this evaluation, Dr. Elig diagnosed Appellant with the following DSM-V Diagnoses: Child Sexual Abuse (T76.22D), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, with delayed expression (F43.10), and Major Depressive Disorder (F32.2). Id. at 98–99. Regarding Appellant's delayed disclosure of the abuse, Dr. Elig opined that:

survivors said his so-called treatments gave rise to." Id. at 17. Accordingly, they argue, there "can be no realistic question that Ms. Humphrey knew about the allegations made against Mr. Nassar, knew what athletes were saying about what these treatments actually were, which was abuse, and that it had a[n] impact on their lives." Id. at 17–18. Delayed symptoms and disclosure of sexual abuse are not uncommon, and must be understood individually with respect to content, context, and developmental stage. Ms. Humphrey clearly recalled the incident of child sexual abuse during adolescence and early adulthood, but she did not experience significant psychological symptoms until genital examination during pregnancy and childbirth served as a powerful reminder and precipitated a feeling of recurrence of sexual abuse. She was then flooded with feelings of vulnerability, helplessness, guilt, defectiveness, and lack of trust. Prior to that time, she had also been in the child sexual abuse, creating a potent loyalty bind. These factors credibly explain Ms. Humphrey's pattern of delayed symptoms and disclosure from a psychiatric viewpoint.

Id. at 100–01. Background of Current Bankruptcy Proceedings USA Gymnastics ("Debtor") filed a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Petition on December 5, 2018, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana due to the high number of sexual abuse claims arising from Debtor's employment of Dr. Larry Nassar. Id. at 277–83. The nature of Dr. Larry Nassar's sexual assaults on hundreds of young gymnasts is well-documented in the bankruptcy record, the tragic details of which we do not reiterate here. An Additional Tort Claimants Committee of Sexual Abuse Survivors ("Survivors' Committee") was appointed by the United States Trustee on December 19, 2018 to represent the interests of sexual abuse survivors who asserted claims against USA Gymnastics. Id. at 274–77. The Bankruptcy Court set April 29, 2019 as the final day for claimants, including sexual abuse claimants, to file proofs of claim. Dkt. 14-1 at 90. On May 17, 2019, the Bankruptcy Court appointed Fred Caruso to serve as Future Claims Representative. Dkt. 8-2 at 257–60. Debtor distributed the notice of the bar date to more than 1,300 individuals, including e-mail notice to more than 360,000 e- mail addresses for current and former USA Gymnastics members. Dkt. 14-1 at 90–91. Ultimately, more than five hundred individuals filed separate claims based on allegations of sexual abuse against them by Dr. Nassar. Id.

Following the bar date for claims to be filed, mediation was undertaken in an attempt to resolve the sexual abuse claims against the Debtor. Participants in the mediation process included the Survivors' Committee, counsel for hundreds of sexual abuse claimants, the Debtor, the Debtor's insurers, the Future Claims Representative, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its insurers. Dkt. 5-2 at 203. On July 30, 2020—fifteen months after the bar date—Appellant filed her claim along

with a motion to treat her late-filed claim as timely. Dkt. 14-1 at 234–50. The Survivors' Committee opposed the motion. See Dkt. 6 at 16.

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