A Manhattan federal judge expressed skepticism of a planned attempt to dismiss civil sexual assault and battery claims against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday, as talks regarding participation in a victims' fund appeared to be at an impasse.

Lawyers for the estate have argued that New York law bars punitive damages in the case of an unnamed plaintiff, who said she was just 14 years old when Epstein began abusing her.

In a hearing Wednesday, attorney Bennet Moskowitz said he will try to have the entire lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that it's time-barred under the law of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein filed his will days before he died in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting a criminal trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

The statements elicited a blunt response from U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, one of several judges in the Southern District of New York presiding over cases against the estate.

"I make no final decisions, but you can see the skepticism with which I see the time-bar issue," she told Moskowitz.

The latest posturing sets up a conflict over which jurisdiction's law could apply.

The plaintiff, like more than a dozen other Epstein accusers, filed her lawsuit under New York's Child Victim's Act, a 2019 law that extended the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual assault to sue their alleged abusers. The four-count complaint sought "actual, compensatory, statutory, consequential and punitive" damages from Epstein's estate, which is headed by former Epstein attorneys Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn.

On Dec. 2, Moskowitz said in a letter that he planned to file a motion to dismiss claims for punitive damages under a different provision of New York law, which blocks punitive damages for "personal injury caused by a decedent tortfeasor."

Roberta Kaplan, who represents the plaintiff, responded that the anticipated motion did not affect any of the four asserted causes for action, and should instead be treated as a motion to strike. There also remained the "threshold question," she said, of whether New York probate law would even apply, given that Epstein "purposefully availed himself" of Virgin Islands law just before his death.

"It is therefore only reasonable that he and his beneficiaries should expect that USVI law would govern all matters relating to the estate, including the availability of punitive damages," Kaplan wrote in a Dec. 4 letter.

Moskowitz argued Wednesday that if the law of the Virgin Islands did in fact apply, Kaplan's client would no longer be able to claim the extended statute of limitations provided under the CVA.

"If U.S. Virgin Islands law applies, the action is time-barred," he said.

The argument, however, seemed to gain little traction with Failla, who appeared to side with Kaplan that it was an entirely different issue from the question of which state's laws applied to the underlying tort claims.

Failla adjourned Wednesday's hearing without ordering briefings on the issue.

Further complicating matters, attorneys for both sides said there was no buy-in with a claims resolution program for plaintiffs to settle with Epstein's estate out of court.

Despite some initial interest from plaintiffs attorneys, Moskowitz said none had decided to stay their lawsuits and "give it a shot." Kaplan said settlements are a "two-way street," and objected to a process that she said boxed out counsel for Epstein's accusers. Kaplan complained that the process was not truly independent, and that too much control was left to Epstein's estate.

Asked by Failla on Wednesday whether she could possibly see herself participating, Kaplan responded: "I think it's very unlikely, your honor."

"This does not look to me like a case that's going to settle," Kaplan said.

Moskowitz, meanwhile, defended the program, which he said had no aggregate cap for plaintiffs and was headed by Ken Feinberg, who served as special master on the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and also ran a $20 billion fund to pay claims resulting from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"This is an independent claims program," he said. "It's not like we went out and hired our cousin."

Absent participation for Epstein's accusers, Moskowitz acknowledged that the estate was forced to move forward with a motion to dismiss Kaplan's lawsuit or risk a default judgment.

"We had to move. We had to respond to the complaint," he said. "It's an important motion."

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