Human rights lawyers filed a class action law suit in a U.S federal court accusing the United Nations of gross negligence and misconduct on behalf of victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2010.

"The claims are that the U.N. engaged in reckless and gross negligence and misconduct bringing cholera to Haiti," said Ira Kurzban, a lawyer and board member with the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Development in Haiti.

The group is demanding financial compensation for the 8,300 Haitians who died as a result of the cholera epidemic as well as some 650,000 more survivors of the illness. U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq expressed to CNN "it is not the United Nations' practice to discuss in public claims filed against the Organization."

Earlier this year, however, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared the United Nations could not receive claims for compensation from Haitian cholera victims, arguing that the organization had legal immunity according to an international convention.

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