CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) – A massage parlor is not responsible for the criminal sexual assault of one of its massage therapists, an Ohio appeals court has ruled.
The First Appellate District in late August ruled against plaintiff Dina Sitton in her lawsuit against Massage Odyssey, where a masseuse in 2016 inappropriately touched her.
That masseuse, Alexander Miller, was indicted on rape charges and admitted to the assault.
Massage Odyssey had no way of predicting the behavior of Miller, the trial court and the appeals court have ruled. They have also found Miller was an independent contractor.
“While we certainly sympathize with Ms. Sitton for what she had to endure, we cannot disregard the settled requirements of Ohio law that bar her claim on the record at hand,” Judge Pierre Bergeron wrote.