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The Courts
Awards
Guilt
Legal Dictionary
And More!
100
In this 1991 court case, a New York court refused to hold a school board liable when a high school assistant principal was sexually assaulted in an unlocked room by an armed assailant.
What is Porterfield v. City of New York, 573 NYS 2d 681 (NY App Div 1st Dept 1991)
100
Awards where defendant's have shown malice, fraud, or reckless desregard for an injured person's safety or constitutional right.
What are punitive damages?
100
If a student's own negligence contributed to an injury, the law in a few states would consider the student to be guilty of what?
What is contributory negligence
100
A common law theory which holds that since the state and its agency are sovereign, they cannot be sued without their consent and should not be held liable for the negligence of their employee.
What is governmental immunity.
100
In this 1993 court case, the court dismissed the claim on the teacher when a parent sued the teacher after a classroom aide severely beat her child while the child and the aide were in the bathroom.
What is Allen v. Crawford 438 SE 2d 178 (Ga App. 1993)
200
In this 1982 court case, The Montana Supreme court concluded that the school owed a duty of care and was guilty of educational malpractice based no negligent placing of a special ed student.
What is B.M. vs. State of Montana B.M. vs State of Montana, 649 p. 2d 425 (Mont 1982)
200
The purpose of this award is to compensate injured persons for their actual loss, including for their medical expenses, lost salary, and other provable costs incurred as a result of the defendant's negligence.
What are compensatory damages?
200
These laws permit the judge or jury to compare the relative negligence of the plaintiff and the defendant in causing the injury and to reduce the award to the plaintiff in proportion to the negligence.
What is comparative negligence?
200
This type of litigation gives an individual the right to sue state government employees and others acting "under color of state law" for civil rights violations.
What is Section 1983.
200
an abstract and comprehensive term that encompasses a sincere belief or motive without any malice or the desire to defraud others
What is good faith standard
300
This was applied in a Maryland case, Eisel v. Board of Educ of Mont. County, to hold two high school counselors liable for failing to attempt to prevent a student's suicide. Eisel v. Bd of Educ. of Mont. County, 597 A. 2d 447 (Md. 1991.)
What is duty of care?
300
A small symblic award where the plaintiff has been wronged but has not been able to show actual damages.
What are nominal damages?
300
A school is guilty of this when they hire an employee who they know or should know are unfit and who puts others at unreasonable risk of harm.
What is negligent hiring.
300
responsible by law; legally answerable
What is liable.
300
Federal law provides that in Section 1983 lawsuits, the court "may allow the ___________ __________, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fees as part of the costs.
What is prevailing party.
400
In Sheehan v. St Peter's Catholic School, the teacher failed to exercise this when she left Margaret Sheehan and other classmates at an athletic field unattended. Sheehan v. St. Peter's Catholic Sch., 188 N W 2d 868(Minn. 1971)
What is reasonable care?
400
In this 1978 court case, several Puerto Rican students sued for damages when they were unlawfully suspended for up to 12 days. They were unable to prove an actual injury such as significant harm to reputation in the community or psychological distress. It was an error in the administration of university discipline. The appeals court felt that the appropriate award was to grant the students nominal damages plus the attorneys' fees they incurred in pursuing their lawsuit.
What is Perez v. Rodrigues Bou Perez v. Rodrigues Bou, 575 F. 2d 21 (1st Cir. 1978)
400
This is also know as defamation.
What is impairment of reputation.
400
An event sufficiently related to a legally recognizable injury to be held to be the cause of that injury.
What is proximate cause.
400
In this 2009 case, where an assistant principal strip searched an eighth grade girl in an unsuccessful attempt to find contraband prescription drugs, the U.S. Supreme Court found the school district liable for a constitutional violation but held that the school administrators were not personally liable because "clearly established law did not show that the search violated the Fourth Amendment."
What is Safford Unified School District v. Redding, 129 S. Ct 2633 (2009).
500
In this court case, a federal court ruled that a defendant school district was entitled to an award of attorney's fees in the amount of $39,000.00 where a high school student's parents brought a frivolous claim that the student's civil rights were violated when she was suspended for violating the school's zero-tolerance policy forbidding the possession of alcohol on school grounds.
What is Lyon v. Estrella Foothills High School, 2007 WL 707124 (D. Ariz. 2007).
500
In this 1978 court case a teacher was awarded $5,036.42 in compensatory damages from the principal and superintendent, $26,000.00 from the principal, $26,000.00 from the superintendent, and $18,000.00 to pay for attorney fees. In upholding this verdict, the First Circuit noted that the teacher offered evidence of serious emotional damages, having suffered a breakdown as the result of the malicious actions of her supervisors.
What is Burnaman v. Bay City Independent School Dist. 445 E. Supp. 927 (S.D. Tex. 1978)
500
In this California case, the court found the school district liable when a student member of the wrestling team was assaulted by a nonstudent in an unsupervised restroom in the high school.
What is Leger v. Stockton Unified School District, 249 Cal. Rptr. 688 (App. 1988).
500
A legal doctrine by which the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution.
What is sovereign immunity.
500
State laws state that a teacher can be dismissed for "willful misconduct" which is shown in this Iowa case in which a court upheld the dismissal of a tenured ninth-grade English teacher who made sarcastic comments to students, such as telling a student who had submitted a paper about teenage suicide that "he should try it".
What is Sheldon Community Sch Dist. v Lundblad, 528 N. W. 2d. 593 (Iowa 1995).