New Jersey's Supreme Court has ruled that Boys & Girls Clubs of America cannot be held liable for sexual abuse allegedly committed decades ago by a part-time counselor at its Hudson County chapter, even as the lawsuits against that local chapter and the counselor himself move forward toward trial. The counselor, Arthur Freudenberg, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being charged in 1980 with 493 counts of aggravated sexual assault involving boys ages 11 to 13. Nine plaintiffs allege the abuse happened between 1976 and 1984, both at Freudenberg's apartment and during activities sponsored by the local chapter.
The nine plaintiffs had sued Boys & Girls Clubs of America, its Hudson County chapter, and Freudenberg himself, arguing that the national organization failed to adopt policies and procedures that could have protected children from abuse, according to New Jersey Monitor. Proposed safeguards cited in the case included prohibiting volunteers or employees from taking minors home or spending time alone with them. But the court's majority found that Boys & Girls Clubs of America — which is headquartered in Georgia and was chartered by Congress in Washington, D.C. — only supplied its local chapter with its logo, sample programming, budgeting assistance, and volunteer-development assistance, contacts the justices said were not enough to tie the national group to what happened in Hudson County.
Majority Says Claims Don't Reach the National Organization
Justice Rachel Wainer Apter, who penned the majority decision, wrote that plaintiffs' claims will be heard in New Jersey but not against Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The majority held that the lawsuits did not arise from or relate to the national group's contacts with the local chapter, and the court affirmed an appellate ruling that had reversed a trial court decision allowing claims against the national group to proceed. Apter said the specific circumstances of the alleged abuse dictate whether an out-of-state parent organization should bear culpability in New Jersey — and here, the alleged abuse was not perpetrated by a national-group employee, did not occur at an activity sponsored by the national group, and did not take place on property the national group owned.
The ruling tracks a pattern already visible in New Jersey jurisprudence. In February 2025, the state Supreme Court similarly found it lacked personal jurisdiction over the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in a case involving alleged abuse by a Philadelphia priest during a 1971 overnight trip to New Jersey, according to Justia Law. Out-of-state nonprofit umbrella organizations facing New Jersey lookback litigation have frequently mounted similar jurisdictional challenges, arguing that general national chartering and sample safety guidelines don't amount to purposeful contact with the state — a principle discussed in a 2024 case involving purposeful availment and perpetrator-related contacts, according to Post & Schell, P.C.
Dissent Warns of a National Group's Blind Eye
Justice John Jay Hoffman dissented, joined by Justice Douglas Fasciale. Hoffman described the national group's local chapters as a safe haven for children and charged that the majority ignored Boys & Girls Clubs of America's failure to keep children safe from sexual abuse. The dissent frames the case as a missed opportunity to hold the national organization accountable for the standards — or lack of them — that trickled down to its affiliates.
The lawsuits exist at all because of New Jersey's Child Victims Act, enacted by state lawmakers in 2019. The law created a two-year window, running from December 1, 2019, through November 30, 2021, to revive previously time-barred civil claims arising from childhood sexual abuse, and it allowed victims to sue for childhood abuse before turning 55 or within seven years of realizing the abuse caused harm. New Jersey's Charitable Immunity Act also figures in discussions of the state's nonprofit-liability law, per Post & Schell, P.C.
What Happens Next for the Hudson County Chapter
While Boys & Girls Clubs of America is now out of the case, the New Jersey Supreme Court allowed the lawsuits against the Hudson County chapter and Freudenberg to proceed. The Hudson County chapter, founded in Jersey City in 1893 and expanded to Hoboken in 1984, operates as a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving more than 2,700 area youth annually across ten locations, according to Party with Purpose. The active claims against it involve alleged abuse by Freudenberg, who worked as a part-time counselor for the chapter from 1976 to 1984.
The distinction matters because it separates the fate of a sprawling national organization — Boys & Girls Clubs of America serves more than 4 million youth annually across more than 5,400 club locations in the U.S. and on military installations worldwide, per the organization's own account — from a single local chapter that remains fully exposed to New Jersey law. Boys & Girls Clubs of America did not respond to requests for comment, the New Jersey Monitor reported.
A Contrast With Other Youth Organizations' Abuse Reckonings
New Jersey's high court has not uniformly narrowed abuse liability. In June 2026, the same court extended vicarious liability to schools in cases involving employee sexual abuse, according to Landman Corsi Ballaine & Ford. And in a separate August 2026 ruling in J.H. v. Warren Hills Board of Education, the court found that expanded passive-abuser liability provisions under the Child Sexual Abuse Act apply only prospectively.
The financial stakes of abuse cases can be substantial. The Boy Scouts of America comparison is separate from this case. Boys & Girls Clubs of America, by contrast, has now avoided New Jersey liability entirely through the jurisdictional route, leaving its Hudson County affiliate to answer for the claims alone.
