In an issue of first impression, the New Jersey Appellate Division considered whether the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) applied to claims arising from a sexual predator’s criminal assaults against a young schoolgirl where those crimes were committed on a school bus. Plaintiff was five years old when she was sexually assaulted by a bus aide while riding on a school bus. Plaintiffs sued the bus company and township, asserting a claim for negligence and claims for relief under the LAD based on the predator’s “harassment and sexual” abuse. The Court determined that “under the circumstances of this case, we conclude the LAD does not apply, especially where, as here, there was no evidence that the predator’s compulsive and repetitive behavior was the result of any proven intention to discriminate specifically against young women.” The Court concluded that “the LAD was simply not intended to provide a civil remedy for child sex abuse committed by compulsive pedophiles.”

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