James Anderson v. Vanderbilt University

450 F. App'x 500
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 8, 2011
Docket10-5769
StatusUnpublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 450 F. App'x 500 (James Anderson v. Vanderbilt University) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Anderson v. Vanderbilt University, 450 F. App'x 500 (6th Cir. 2011).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff James Anderson appeals a district court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendant, Vanderbilt University, on his claims of breach of contract, negligence, and promissory and equitable es-toppel. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Anderson was an undergraduate student at the University at the time of the events giving rise to this lawsuit. On December 12, 2007, Anderson took a test in his Physics laboratory class, taught by Professor Kenneth Schriver. Anderson answered just one of the fifteen test questions correctly, and thirteen of his answers were the same as those of the student sitting next to him, who was taking a different version of the test. Based on the similarity between the test answers and a review of the notations on Anderson’s test, Schri-ver reported the matter to the University’s Honor Council. On January 16, 2008, Anderson appeared before a panel of the Honor Council, which found him guilty of receiving unauthorized assistance on the [502]*502test. Because it was Anderson’s second violation of the University’s Honor Code, the Honor Council sanctioned him with expulsion.

The Appellate Review Board (“the Board”) remanded the case for a new hearing, concluding that Anderson was not given the opportunity to fully present his account of the events in question. The second hearing panel found Anderson guilty by a unanimous vote, and that decision was affirmed by the Board. Anderson was expelled at the end of the Fall 2008 semester.

Anderson then filed the instant action, asserting, inter alia, that the University was negligent and breached its implied contract of good faith and fair dealing by finding him guilty without clear and convincing evidence, appointing a presiding officer for the second hearing who was aware of his prior Honor Code violation and the outcome of the first hearing, and improperly dismissing most of his second appeal petition. The district court granted summary judgment to the University on all of Anderson’s claims. Anderson now appeals.

We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. Parsons v. City of Pontiac, 533 F.3d 492, 499 (6th Cir.2008). Summary judgment is proper “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a).

The Tennessee Supreme Court “has not ... enunciated the standard which should be applied in a dispute arising out of the university-student relationship.” Doherty v. S. Coll. of Optometry, 862 F.2d 570, 577 (6th Cir.1988). Generally, however, the relationship between a student and a private university “is contractual in nature.” Id. (applying Tennessee law). Accordingly, a student may raise breach of contract claims arising from a university’s alleged failure to comply with its rules governing disciplinary proceedings. See Atria v. Vanderbilt Univ., 142 Fed.Appx. 246, 255-56 (6th Cir.2005). In construing the terms of the implied contract, however, we have assumed that the Tennessee courts “would adopt the deferential standard of reasonable expectation — what meaning the party making the manifestation, the university, should reasonably expect the other party to give it.” Doherty, 862 F.2d at 577 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Anderson first argues that, by finding him guilty after the first hearing, the Honor Council violated the provision of the Student Handbook that requires “clear and convincing” proof of guilt. Unlike the plaintiff in Atria, Anderson does not allege a procedural error by the Honor Council; he simply argues that it reached the wrong result. But the record before the Honor Council contained ample evidence to support its decision under a “clear and convincing” standard, in particular the fact that Anderson’s answers were almost identical to another student’s and could not be explained by the notations he made on his test or his post hoc reasoning. Absent any allegation that the Honor Council failed to comply with the relevant procedural requirements, we decline to construe the Student Handbook as requiring a particular outcome. Accordingly, the district court properly granted summary judgment to the University on this claim, as well as on Anderson’s related claim that the Board should have reversed the Honor Council’s guilty finding based on insufficient evidence.

Anderson next raises breach of contract and promissory estoppel claims arising from the fact that the presiding officer at the second hearing was aware of the result of the first hearing and [503]*503Anderson’s prior Honor Code violation. Anderson argues that the presiding officer should not have received information concerning the first hearing because the Board’s remand order directed that the second hearing be conducted by a new panel with a new presiding officer. But even if the remand order had contractual force, there was no breach because the second hearing did have a new presiding officer and new members. Similarly, Anderson cannot demonstrate that the University reneged on a promise not to disclose his prior Honor Code violation to the panel during the guilt phase of the second hearing. Anderson relies on an email sent by a University attorney, John Callison, stating that: “References in the investigators’ packet ... regarding Mr. Anderson’s disclosure to them about his previous Honor Council conviction will be removed. Information relative to this previous conviction will be brought forth only if he is convicted at the upcoming hearing since prior convictions would be relevant in the determination of an appropriate sanction.” Even if this email could be construed as binding on the University, Anderson has failed to show a breach because his previous Honor Code violation was not raised during the guilt phase of the hearing, which is all that was promised. Accordingly, summary judgment was proper on these claims as well.

Anderson also argues that, by allowing his professor to testify at the second hearing that notations made by Anderson on his test were evidence of copying, the University violated a provision of the Student Handbook that directs the accuser to provide “a general account of the events in question.” But the handbook neither bars accusers from offering opinion testimony nor places any other limitation on the type of testimony they may offer. Accordingly, the University did not violate any of its own rules by allowing this testimony.

Anderson’s remaining arguments relate to his second appeal. First, Anderson argues that the Board Chair, Charles Brau, violated Board procedures by not allowing portions of his appeal petition to proceed to a panel. The relevant provision directs the Chair to review a petition upon receipt “to determine whether it, when considered in the light most favorable to the Petitioner, sets forth a basis sufficient to provide the relief sought by the Petitioner. If the Chair determines that the petition does not set forth a basis sufficient to provide the relief, the Chair will dismiss the petition (or such parts of the petition that the Chair has determined do not set forth a basis sufficient to provide relief). The Chair’s decision is final.”

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Bluebook (online)
450 F. App'x 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-anderson-v-vanderbilt-university-ca6-2011.