U.N. Will Pay $94,000 to Settle Complex Sex Harassment Case

The United Nations said Friday that it has settled one of its most protracted sexual harassment cases, awarding American Catherine Claxton $94,000.

In addition, she will be reimbursed $110,300 for legal fees and $6,500 for costs in the case she brought against Luis Maria Gomez, an Argentine official who was second in command in the U.N. Development Program before he resigned.

Technically, the deal worked out with Claxton means she receives the money for compensation resulting from the “prolonged and complex nature of the proceedings that led to the resolution of her case,” a U.N. announcement said.

The settlement also provides that Claxton, an office worker, can appeal a decision concerning her job classification at the United Nations without liability.

But U.N. sources said the settlement does not cover her suit in New York state court against Gomez personally, where she and her lawyers seek $2 million in damages.

Claxton, in still-secret papers, charged three years ago that, in 1988, Gomez shut the door to his office, grabbed and kissed her, and in another incident in a routine meeting, made sexual remarks.

Gomez denied the entire episode, and his lawyers at one point demanded that the case be reopened, contending that the U.N. standards for sexual harassment were made up after the fact.

The Claxton case, because of the wide publicity it engendered, pointed up the lack of procedures and rules in dealing with sexual harassment in the vast U.N. structure with employees from all cultures in the world.

In Friday’s announcement, Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he has assembled a task force to recommend improvements to current policies and procedures for handling future allegations of sexual harassment.

Attorneys who participated in the Claxton case, including noted trial lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who defended Gomez, will be invited to present their views.