How claims against massage businesses work
A massage takes place in a private room, with a client partly undressed and alone with one worker. That is why both the law and licensing rules treat sexual contact during a massage as serious misconduct. This page covers massage studios, day spas, hotel and resort spas, and massage franchises. Every kind of institution we cover is listed on the institutions hub.
Claims against the therapist
The person who committed the assault can be sued directly for sexual battery and related claims under state law. A criminal case against the therapist is separate and can run at the same time; our guide to civil and criminal cases explains the differences. Our page on adult sexual assault covers what survivors often experience afterward.
Claims against the business
The business is usually sued for negligence: negligent hiring, supervision and retention of the therapist, under state common law. The questions are concrete. Did the business check the therapist’s license and background? Had other clients complained, and what was done? Did the business keep scheduling the therapist after a complaint, or move the therapist to another location? Was there any policy for handling a report? Premises liability, a claim about the safety of the place itself, is often pleaded alongside.
Some suits go further and allege that a business misled customers about safety. In the California cases described below, the complaints alleged that the defendants knew of a “rampant problem of sexual assaults occurring at Massage Envy locations” and concealed it, and pleaded nine causes of action, from negligence and sexual battery to fraud, the state’s consumer protection law and its Ralph Civil Rights Act. Those are allegations.
Who can be held responsible
The location’s owner. Many massage brands are franchises. The franchisee is a separate company that owns the location, hires and pays the therapists and runs the schedule. It is usually the employer and the main defendant on negligence claims.
The franchisor. The national brand sells the name and the business system. Courts generally ask how much control it had over the location’s staff. In Patterson v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, 60 Cal.4th 474 (August 28, 2014), a sexual harassment case against a pizza franchisor, the California Supreme Court held that a franchisor is liable only if it “has retained or assumed a general right of control over factors such as hiring, direction, supervision, discipline, discharge, and relevant day-to-day aspects of the workplace behavior of the franchisee’s employees.” Brand standards that protect the trademark are not enough on their own. Georgia uses a similar control test: in a 2021 hotel trafficking case, the federal appeals court for Georgia said that under Georgia law a franchisor owes customers a duty only if it keeps a right to control day-to-day operations; our page on hotels and trafficking discusses that case.
What this means in practice is that a claim against a brand usually depends on evidence about what the brand required, what it was told about complaints, and how it responded. A complaint can plead facts like these, as the California Massage Envy complaints did, but each court decides whether they are enough.
Hotels and other hosts. A spa inside a hotel or gym may be run by the property or by a separate operator under contract. Which company employed the therapist decides who is sued first.
Some businesses that advertise massage are fronts for prostitution or trafficking. People forced to work in them have claims of a different kind, under federal trafficking law; see sex trafficking and our page on hotels and trafficking for how that law works.
State licensing boards
Where a state licenses or certifies massage therapists, a board or council issues the credential and can discipline the holder. A board complaint is separate from a police report and from a lawsuit. It does not pay compensation, but it can lead to discipline against the therapist’s credential. Two examples show how specific the rules are.
- Florida. State law defines sexual misconduct in massage as a therapist using the therapist-patient relationship “to induce or attempt to induce the patient to engage, or to engage or attempt to engage the patient, in sexual activity outside the scope of practice,” and says flatly that it “is prohibited” (Fla. Stat. 480.0485). The disciplinary statute, 480.046, also reaches massage establishments whose owners, managers or therapists have disciplinary orders or convictions involving sexual misconduct or prostitution.
- California. Under the Massage Therapy Act, certification and oversight of massage professionals is statewide, while local governments regulate massage establishments (Bus. & Prof. Code 4600.5). Unprofessional conduct includes “engaging in sexual activity while providing massage services for compensation” and massage of the genitals or anal region, and the certifying council must deny or revoke certification for anyone required to register as a sex offender (Bus. & Prof. Code 4609, as amended effective January 1, 2026).
The California Massage Envy complaints alleged that the defendants “actively prevent[ed] sexual assault ... from being reported to law enforcement and/or state massage therapy boards.” Whether a business told a board, and whether it let a client make a report, can matter in a later lawsuit. Reporting abuse explains how to report to police.
Deadline issues for massage and spa claims
Adult deadlines. Where the client was an adult, the claim usually runs on the state’s deadline for adult injury or sexual assault claims, which can be much shorter than the deadline for childhood abuse. The California cases show how decisive that can be. In 2019, several dozen plaintiffs sued Massage Envy Franchising, LLC and Massage Envy franchisees, alleging they were assaulted as adults by therapists at California locations between August 2003 and November 2014. The trial court dismissed their claims as too late, and 18 of the plaintiffs appealed. On June 29, 2023, in Jane Doe #21 (S.H.) v. CFR Enterprises, Inc., 93 Cal.App.5th 1199, the California Court of Appeal reversed, because a new law, AB 2777, effective January 1, 2023, had revived some, if not all, of the claims.
California’s adult windows. As the court described it, AB 2777 amended Code of Civil Procedure 340.16 to revive adult sexual assault claims in two ways. One revived certain claims for assaults on or after January 1, 2009 that had not been decided or settled before January 1, 2023. The other opened a window running to December 31, 2023 for claims against an entity alleged to have engaged in “a cover up or attempted a cover up” of earlier assaults, whenever the assault happened. That window has closed, and how the first provision applies to a particular claim is a question for a lawyer. A 2025 law, AB 250, reopened a further window for some adult claims involving a cover-up; its closing date should be confirmed from the statute itself before anyone relies on it.
Childhood claims. Where the client was a minor, the longer childhood rules apply. California, for example, has no time limit for childhood sexual assault that occurred on or after January 1, 2024 (Code Civ. Proc. 340.1). Our statute of limitations reference has each state’s rules.
The deadlines described here are general rules, and most of them have exceptions. The date that governs a particular claim turns on the state, the person’s age when the abuse happened, when they connected it to the harm it caused, and who the defendant is. A claim against a public agency or a public school can carry a written notice requirement that runs out long before the ordinary deadline.
Nothing on this page can tell you your own date. A lawyer who looks at your facts can, and there is no charge to ask.
Active litigation involving massage businesses
Each line is an allegation unless it says a court has ruled.
Court of Appeal reversed dismissal of 18 plaintiffs’ claims on June 29, 2023 and sent them back to San Mateo County Superior Court; later status not confirmed.
The defendants in those cases argued that the claims were time-barred, which is the question the appeal decided. Their position on the underlying allegations is not stated in the opinion, and we have not confirmed what happened in the trial court after the case was sent back. The opinion is not a finding that any assault occurred.
It covers only matters we could check against a court record as of October 5, 2026. Most massage assault claims are individual suits, many settle without a public record, and a business missing from this page is not a sign that no claim exists. The case tracker lists the matters we follow.
Where to go next
Our guide to filing anonymously explains how survivors can sue under initials, as the plaintiffs in the California cases did. How to file a claim walks through a lawsuit step by step, and trauma and healing covers support outside the legal system. Assaults by other health workers are covered on our page about doctors and medical settings, and assaults by a coworker or client at work under the workplace. If you want a lawyer to look at your own dates, a free, confidential case review costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Questions we are asked most
Often, under state negligence law: negligent hiring, supervision or retention of the therapist, and sometimes premises liability. The questions are what the business knew or should have known about the therapist and what it did after any earlier complaint. The therapist can also be sued directly.
Sometimes, but it is harder than suing the location's owner. In Patterson v. Domino's Pizza (2014), the California Supreme Court held that a franchisor is liable for a franchisee's employee only if it kept a general right of control over matters such as hiring, supervision, discipline and day-to-day workplace conduct. Brand standards alone are not enough.
A board complaint is separate from a police report and a lawsuit, and you can do any of them. Boards can discipline a therapist's license or certificate but do not pay compensation. Florida, for example, prohibits sexual misconduct in massage by statute, and California treats sexual activity during a paid massage as unprofessional conduct.
For an adult, usually the state's deadline for injury or sexual assault claims, which can be much shorter than the rules for childhood abuse. California's 2023 window for adult claims against entities that allegedly covered up earlier assaults closed on December 31, 2023. A lawyer can check your own dates.
Several dozen plaintiffs sued Massage Envy Franchising and franchisees in 2019, alleging they were assaulted by therapists at California locations between 2003 and 2014. After the trial court dismissed their claims as too late, the Court of Appeal reversed on June 29, 2023 for 18 of them, because a new law had revived some, if not all, of the claims. The opinion is not a finding that any assault occurred, and later trial-court status was not confirmed.
Many survivors sue under initials or as Jane Doe, as the plaintiffs in the California Massage Envy cases did. Courts decide those requests case by case, and our guide to filing anonymously explains how they work.
- Jane Doe #21 (S.H.) v. CFR Enterprises, Inc., 93 Cal.App.5th 1199 (Cal. Ct. App. June 29, 2023), No. A163543 Accurate as of June 29, 2023.
- Patterson v. Domino's Pizza, LLC, 60 Cal.4th 474 (Cal. Aug. 28, 2014), No. S204543 Accurate as of August 28, 2014.
- Doe #1 v. Red Roof Inns, Inc., 21 F.4th 714 (11th Cir. 2021), Nos. 20-11764 et al. Accurate as of December 22, 2021.
- Florida Statutes 480.0485, sexual misconduct in the practice of massage therapy Accurate as of October 5, 2026.
- Florida Statutes 480.046, grounds for disciplinary action Accurate as of October 5, 2026.
- California Business and Professions Code 4600.5, Massage Therapy Act legislative intent Accurate as of October 5, 2026.
- California Business and Professions Code 4609, as amended by Stats. 2025, ch. 197 (AB 1504) Accurate as of January 1, 2026.
- California Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 Accurate as of October 5, 2026.
