Bingham v. Struve

184 A.D.2d 85 (1992)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P filed a libel action seeking damages and a permanent injunction as well as damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress against D. D claimed that P had raped her in 1953, when she was a 19-year- old librarian, and he a 24-year-old first-year law student, at Harvard Law School. In 1991, D began to picket in front of P's apartment building in Manhattan. The hand-lettered sandwich board which she wore on these almost daily occasions proclaimed as follows: 'ATTENTION RESIDENTS OF 19 EAST 72ND ST. A. WALKER BINGHAM RAPED ME AND IS NOW SUING ME FOR LIBEL.' P and D had a youthful affair, which commenced in 1953 and ended in 1955, and that for the next 30 years they lived separate lives. D married in 1965, had two children, and was divorced in 1984. P had married twice and has three children. After a chance encounter 1983, a second affair began and lasted until 1989 when, D contends, the memory of the alleged rape, which she had repressed for 36 years, was unlocked. D states that she then realized that this was why she had been depressed and dysfunctional for years and that it accounted for her inability to pursue a career and succeed in her marriage. D claims that, by publicizing her charges against P, she will be able to come to terms with the traumatic event and heal emotionally, a process that requires an admission of guilt and expression of remorse from P.