(Reuters) – The University of Michigan said it would pay $490 million to at least one,050 individuals to resolve claims of sexual assault against an old sports doctor, in a settlement spanning decades and involving mostly male athletes as victims.
The university said the deal, the culmination of 2 yrs of negotiations with attorneys for the victims, would settle all claims of abuse through the late Dr. Robert Anderson, pending approval by the school’s Board of Regents and also the courts.
“Hopefully this settlement will start the healing process for survivors,” Jordan Acker, chair of the Board of Regents, said in a statement.
Under the agreement, $460 million is going to be paid to the 1,050 claimants, and $30 million placed in reserve for just about any unidentified victims who come forward by July 31, 2023.
Anderson, who had been a physician for the football team and other athletic programs at the university, where he worked from 1966 until his retirement in 2003, died in 2008.
The sexual abuse settlement is the latest involving a prestigious U.S. academic institution.
Last March, the University of Los angeles agreed to pay $852 million to resolve lawsuits brought by 710 women who accused George Tyndall, an ex-gynecologist, of abusing them.
