Talent Agency CAA Must Face Claims in Weinstein Assault Suit (1)

Creative Artists Agency LLC will have to face claims it was obligated to protect British actress Julia Ormond from being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in 1995, a New York appellate court ruled Thursday.

Ormond claimed the talent agency failed to warn her about Weinstein before negotiating her contract with Miramax Film NY LLC and arranging a private business dinner after which the now-imprisoned movie producer assaulted her.

The actress sufficiently alleged she “would have avoided assault but for CAA’s misconduct in failing to warn or protect her,” the New York Supreme Court First Appellate Department said in its unsigned opinion. A jury could “reasonably infer” that the agency proximately caused Ormond’s injuries, the court added.

The ruling in part affirms a lower court decision refusing to dismiss claims against CAA, Miramax, and Walt Disney Co. All three companies appealed the decision; Miramax and Disney in July settled and withdrew from the appeal.

Ormond sued the companies in 2023—along with Weinstein—alleging they knew he was a danger to women in the entertainment industry but failed to take action, as was their duty, to protect the actress.

The three companies argued they shouldn’t be held accountable because they didn’t exercise control over Weinstein, didn’t have enough information to know Ormond would be unsafe if she met with Weinstein alone, and weren’t contractually obligated to protect her from the assault.

The decision “should serve as a wake-up call to CAA that it must put its clients’ safety and well-being ahead of its own financial interests,” said Ormond’s lawyers, Meredith Firetog of Wigdor LLP, Kevin Mintzer of Manhattan, and Effie Blassberger of Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder LLP. The attorneys added they’re confident they can show a jury the talent agency knew about Weinstein’s conduct and could have protected Ormond and other women.

Other Litigation

Weinstein, 73, was in June convicted of sexual assault for the second time in New York and acquitted of an additional rape charge. One day later, a mistrial was declared on the remaining rape charge after the jury foreperson refused to continue deliberations.

The disgraced movie mogul was originally convicted in 2020 of rape and sexual assault. That verdict was overturned last year by New York’s highest court, which said the judge in that trial had wrongly let women who weren’t part of the charges against Weinstein to testify as prosecution witnesses.

Weinstein, who says he has cancer, has been housed in a hospital prison ward rather than Rikers Island.

He also is appealing his sexual assault conviction in Los Angeles, where he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

“While we have deep compassion for Ms. Ormond’s suffering at the hands of Weinstein, there remains no legal or factual basis for her claims against CAA,” said Loretta Lynch of Paul Weiss, counsel for CAA. “The agency could not have warned her about Weinstein’s sexually assaultive behavior because CAA had no knowledge of it. CAA has also obtained discovery that directly contradicts the allegations in Ms. Ormond’s complaint and in which she has admitted that she repeatedly experienced and was well aware of Weinstein’s sexual harassment prior to being represented by CAA.”

Associate Justices Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, Lizbeth González, Martin Shulman, Julio Rodriguez III, and Bahaati E. Pitt-Burke sat on the panel.

The case is Ormond v. Weinstein, N.Y. App. Div., 1st Dep’t, No. 2024-05486, 8/21/25.