MAYVILLE – County leaders have agreed to settle a sexual abuse claim that dates back more than 50 years.

During the Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, lawmakers approved a resolution to pay a plaintiff identified as “J.B.” $100,000 to settle a lawsuit against the county under the Child Victims Act, which had alleged that she was abused while in foster care.

No comments were made on the resolution during Wednesday’s meeting.

In a committee meeting beforehand, Kristen Wright with the county law department said that New York state had allowed a certain time period for certain types of claims to be filed in court, including crimes against children.

Wright said her office felt this was a fair settlement.

“The county is not admitting anything by settling it, but part of it is ‘How credible do you think the witness will appear on the stand? What are the facts that we learned in the deposition?,” she said.

Court documents obtained by The Post-Journal and OBSERVER, allege that in 1970, when the plaintiff was 9 to 10 years old, she was sexually abused by her foster father at the foster home.

“There were multiple incident of sexual abuse,” the documents state.

Chautauqua County is listed as the defendant, noting the county had a “non-delegable duty to use reasonable care in the investigation, licensing, supervision and/or monitoring of foster care facilities, homes and/or families with whom it placed foster children, and to develop or implement programs, guidelines, procedures and/or training to prevent the abuse of foster children placed within foster care facilities, homes and/or families.”

The court documents allege that the plaintiff told her friend that she was being sexually abused, which was reported to the county.

“Defendants did not remove plaintiff from the home for several weeks, and in those several weeks plaintiff was sexually abused on multiple occasions,” the document states.

The court documents further allege that the county should have known that the foster home was not safe.

“It was foreseeable Plaintiff would be sexually assaulted or abused and subject to maltreatment in this home. Perpetrator had a propensity for the conduct which caused injury to Plaintiff, particularly a propensity to engage in the sexual abuse of children. At all relevant times, it was reasonably foreseeable to the Defendants that Perpetrator would commit acts of child sexual abuse or assault on a child,” the documents state.

The county was accused of “failing to adequately supervise its contract agencies by, among other things, imposing and enforcing appropriate standards for the safety and welfare of the children in its care; failing to ensure that caseworkers were adequately trained and supervised; failing to ensure that caseworkers had manageable caseloads; failing to ensure regular caseworker visits and unannounced visits in environments where the foster child would feel comfortable and unthreatened in disclosing abuse or maltreatment; failing to ensure that placement decisions were informed and safe; and failing to review and evaluate a foster care provider’s policies and procedures with regard to the safety of children, including without limitation, those to prevent sexual assaults.”

The plaintiff is a resident of North Carolina and was represented by a Herman Law in New York City.