NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on March 3 granted summary judgement to Loyola University and denied more time for evidence gathering to a former student alleged to have sexually harassed another student at the facility’s law school.
Loyola is a private, non-profit university not directly overseen by state law.
The plaintiff, referred to as John Doe, sued the university for contract breach in July of 2018 claiming officials had made false allegations against him of non-consensual sexual contact and called for a jury trial.
“Having failed to identify any triable issue regarding whether Loyola breached a contract or violated its own student conduct policy or otherwise acted arbitrarily in dismissing Doe from the university, Doe’s breach of contract claim fails to withstand Loyola’s motion for summary judgment,” the court concluded.
Doe, a former law student part-time in 2015, alleged that he was wrongfully expelled after the university conducted an allegedly insufficient and discriminatory investigation where he was twice found responsible for “dating violence” in violation of the university’s code of conduct.
The first claim of improper conduct against Doe came in 2016 and resulted in counseling and disciplinary probation the following year. A second complaint was lodged by an alleged victim called “Jane Roe” in March of 2017.
“Jane Roe reported to Loyola that Doe physically, psychologically, and verbally abused her, harassed her online, and sexually assaulted her,” the brief said.
After a temporary restraining had been filed against Doe by Jane Roe, Doe was arrested for allegedly possessing a firearm in violation of the restraining order.
A Loyola Board of Review hearing was held in June of 2017 to determine what action to take in the case. Doe appeared with his lawyer.
The Review Board decided Doe had not committed sexual assault but had engaged in misconduct and dismissed him from Loyola.
After Doe sued university officials asked the District Court for a summary judgement.
“Summary judgment in favor of Loyola is warranted because the plaintiff failed to submit any evidence in support of an essential element of his claim,” the court opinion explained. “He (Doe) admitted that dating violence, of which he was twice found responsible, would not be condoned by Loyola, violated the conduct policy, and would lead to disciplinary sanctions.”
The U.S. District Court granted the university’s request for summary judgement and denied Doe’s request for an additional discovery period.