K.T., a 31-year-old New Yorker, claims she was raped by music executive Damon Dash following a New Year's Eve party on a small Brazilian Island four years ago.
A central issue in the civil action that K.T. filed in Manhattan Supreme Court is whether the court should apply New York or Brazilian law.
K.T. favors New York's intentional-assault law, in which a plaintiff must prove only that the contact was either offensive or without consent. Dash has argued for Brazil's Civil Code, which requires a victim to demonstrate that her "freedom, equality, safety, intimacy, privacy, honor [or] image," were violated.
On Thursday, a unanimous New York Appellate Division, 1st Department, panel ruled in favor of the plaintiff, holding that New York law should be applied. In a decision written by Justice David B. Saxe, the court ruled that, in the current context, New York's interest in protecting its citizens outweighed Brazil's interest in regulating conduct within its own borders.