Sex abuse case is revived and will head to trial

The Court of Appeals has reinstated a claim alleging that a private school in Connecticut failed to protect a female student from physical abuse.

The case is Miranda v. Westover School, Inc., a summary order issued on September 28. Plaintiff had the burden of showing that the school had reasonable cause to suspect abuse or that she faced an imminent risk of such harm. The trial court dismissed the case on summary judgment, holding plaintiff did not adduce enough evidence to support her claim. The Court of Appeals (Raggi, Lohier and Carney) disagrees and returns the case to the district court for trial.

Plaintiff's evidence includes testimony from a faculty member, Lytle, who said that plaintiff's best friend gave him the impression that "something inappropriate was happening" between plaintiff and a teacher, Fitzsimmons. The best friend was "really worried" about "some sort of inappropriate relationship." Lytle then saw plaintiff and Fitzsimmons sitting with their legs touching or intertwined, which made him "uncomfortable." Lytle next took plaintiff to the headmaster's house and directed her to report Fitzsimmons. Plaintiff did not make the report, and Lytle took no action. In the world of child sex abuse, taking no action gives rise to liability.

So why did the district court dismiss the case? It held that Lytle's testimony should be discounted because his testimony contained irreconcilable points: first Lytle testified that “even today, it would be tricky” to decide whether to report his suspicions of Fitzsimmons’s abuse if he “were given the same information by a student.” But Lytle also testified that “[i]f a student came to [him] today and told [him] exactly what
Alana told [him] about [Miranda] and [Fitzsimmons],” he would “[r]eport it.” The Court of Appeals finds that these conflicting statements are not enough to discount Lytle's testimony and that the school's lawyer is free to attack the conflicting statements at trial, and let the jury determine if Lytle's admission is enough to hold the school liable.