LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – The University of Southern California has reached a record $852 million settlement with more than 700 women who accused an ex-gynecologist on campus of sexually abusing them as patients and the prestigious school of trying to cover it up, attorneys said yesterday.
The law firm representing many of the women in the case said the payout agreed to by USC and the plaintiffs marked the largest sexual abuse settlement with a university and the biggest personal injury payout by any college or university in U.S. history.
The deal, resolving lawsuits brought by 710 women in California state court, stems from allegations against George Tyndall, who practiced at USC for nearly 30 years before the private, Los Angeles-based university suspended him in 2016, then allowed him to quietly retire without immediately reporting him to the state medical board.
A separate $215 million settlement of a federal class-action case in 2018 and a more recent $50 million cluster of individual state court settlements brings the total payout USC has agreed to in the Tyndall scandal to $1.1 billion.
No further civil claims are outstanding.
Tyndall, who has denied wrongdoing, lost his medical license and has been charged with sexually assaulting 21 patients under the guise of gynecological treatment or exams. He has pleaded not guilty to 35 felony counts and remains free on bail. No trial date has been set.
His civil defense lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
Tyndall was technically a party to the USC settlement but lacks any funds to contribute, Vince Finaldi, a lead plaintiffs lawyer and negotiator of the deal, told Reuters.
The former physician, now in his 70s, was deposed for the civil litigation but invoked his 5th Amendment right under the U.S. Constitution to avoid self-incrimination, Finaldi said.
The flood of lawsuits brought by former patients against Tyndall and USC accused the university of negligence and complicity, asserting school officials were aware of his misconduct for years but kept him in a position to continue preying on students placed in his care.
“The enormous size of this settlement speaks to the immense harm done to our clients and the culpability of USC,” plaintiffs attorney John Manley said in a statement. “It is a direct result of a billionaire-dominated Board of Trustees that placed fundraising, prestige and the ‘USC Brand’ above the safety of vulnerable female students.”
Widespread faculty and student outrage over the university’s handling of the matter after allegations against Tyndall surfaced in media accounts in 2018 led then-USC President C.L. Max Nikias to resign.
The scandal even prompted the Chinese government to voice “deep concern” over published reports that many of the alleged victims were students from China.
