A state Supreme Court judge ruled this week that the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, and a former top aide convicted of sexual misconduct are not obligated to repay the state the cost of settling a civil suit brought by the female victim, who charged that Mr. Silver failed to punish a known sexual predator.

In 2006, under the direction of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the woman’s case against the state was settled for $507,500, with virtually all of the money borne by taxpayers.

A retired litigator, Joseph Santora, sued Mr. Silver and the convicted aide, Michael Boxley, claiming the settlement money “should have come from the pockets of Messrs. Silver and Boxley, and not from the taxpayers of New York.”

On Monday, a New York State Supreme Court justice, Emily Jane Goodman, dismissed his suit, ruling that while the alleged conduct of Messrs. Silver and Boxley was “outrageous and disgraceful,” Mr. Spitzer properly handled the litigation and had the legal discretion to spend state funds on a settlement.

“If in representing State officers in their official or individual capacities, the Attorney General errs in judgment in the conduct of the litigation, the remedy lies not before the Supreme Court, but at the polls,” the judge wrote.

In November 2006, Mr. Spitzer was elected governor with 69% of the vote and served 14 months before resigning amid a prostitution scandal.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Santora, 69, vowed to appeal the decision. “The sun not coming up tomorrow is less likely,” he said.

The ruling comes as Mr. Silver’s handling of the allegations against Mr. Boxley, his former chief counsel, has attracted renewed attention, as the women and another woman who accused Mr. Boxley of rape are supporting the campaign of one of Mr. Silver’s primary challengers, Paul Newell.

The woman who filed the lawsuit, identified as “Jane Doe,” a former legislative aide, has given money to Mr. Newell’s campaign and has urged her friends to contribute, the New York Times reported.

Her suit contended that Mr. Silver “condoned” a culture of sexual harassment and left women vulnerable by not firing Mr. Boxley after another legislative aide, Elizabeth Crothers, accused him of raping her in 2001.

Ms. Crothers chose not to file criminal charges and asked the Assembly to investigate the matter internally. While his office conducted its probe, Mr. Silver defended Mr. Boxley, calling him “a man of highest integrity and of the highest character.”

Ms. Crothers withdrew her complaint but has since charged that the inquiry was a “sham,” the Times reported.

After Jane Doe filed charges, Mr. Boxley was led from the Capitol in handcuffs and pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct.

“When Elizabeth Crothers came to the Assembly in 2001 we responded by immediately conducting a vigorous investigation — more than 100 hours, 16 interviews and three attorneys working over 15 days to pursue Ms. Crothers’s complaint — right up until the day she withdrew it,” a spokeswoman for Mr. Silver, Sisa Moyo, said yesterday.

She said Mr. Silver has acknowledged that he was wrong about Mr. Boxley, that he cooperated with Albany investigators after Jane Doe filed charges, and that Mr. Silver, as a father and grandfather and as a legislator who has tightened laws against rape, “feels tremendous anguish over what Ms. Crothers went though.”

In granting Mr. Silver’s motion to dismiss Mr. Santora’ suit, Ms. Goodman did not defend Mr. Silver.

Rather, she wrote: “The court finds all of the underlying facts and circumstances and conduct of the part of any lawyer, and specifically, a lawyer in the employ of and on the payroll of the State of New York, as counsel to the excessively powerful Speaker of the Assembly, and the cavalier conduct of said Speaker as alleged, outrageous and disgraceful.”

She said, however, that Mr. Spitzer was “required to defend Silver” because Jane Doe alleged that the speaker was acting in the scope of his employment by the Assembly in failing to investigate prior allegations.

The decision to settle, she wrote, “was made by Spitzer in what he deemed, in his wisdom, to be in the best interests of the State.”

She also denied restitution for the legal services provided to Mr. Silver by the attorney general because they did not “entail the expenditure of public funds” within the meaning state law.

Mr. Santora said Mr. Spitzer should never have accepted the case. “The woman sued Sheldon Silver for condoning a rape and shielding a rapist. I don’t see how that fits into anyone’s portfolio of duties,” he said.