Senn v. BD. OF SUP'RS OF LA. STATE UNIV.

679 So. 2d 575, 1996 WL 474259
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 21, 1996
Docket28,599-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 679 So. 2d 575 (Senn v. BD. OF SUP'RS OF LA. STATE UNIV.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Senn v. BD. OF SUP'RS OF LA. STATE UNIV., 679 So. 2d 575, 1996 WL 474259 (La. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

679 So.2d 575 (1996)

Lori M. SENN, et al., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 28,599-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 21, 1996.
Writ Denied October 25, 1996.

*577 Nelson, Hammons & Self, by John L. Hammons, Shreveport, for Appellant.

Walker, Tooke, Lyons & Jones, by Laurie W. Lyons, Special Asst. Atty., Robin G. Perrero, Shreveport, for Appellee.

Before BROWN, GASKINS and CARAWAY, JJ.

CARAWAY, Judge.

A former university student and her husband brought this suit against the school, alleging the school was liable for a professor's sexual exploitation and abuse of her while she was a student. The trial court found that although the professor's actions amounted to sexual abuse and misconduct, the school was not liable, either independently or vicariously, for that conduct. The plaintiffs appeal. The school answers the appeal, asserting various trial court errors, including the finding that the student's claim had not prescribed.

We render judgment for the school, finding that plaintiffs/appellants' cause of action has prescribed.

FACTS

Lori M. Senn enrolled at Louisiana State University in Shreveport (LSU-S) as a psychology major in the fall semester of 1978. While Mrs. Senn was a student at LSU-S, she enrolled in psychology classes with Dr. Joseph Carlisle in the spring semester of 1979 and the spring and summer semesters of 1982. Mrs. Senn treated Dr. Carlisle as her academic advisor. Dr. Carlisle apparently also counseled students, and Mrs. Senn testified that she sought him out as early as the spring of 1979 for personal counseling regarding other sexual relations which had caused her emotional problems. Mrs. Senn also babysat for Dr. Carlisle's children.

Following Mrs. Senn's final examination in Dr. Carlisle's spring, 1982 class, the two went for a drive out to a building in the country where they had their initial sexual contact, which ended when she told him they needed to go back to school. Approximately two weeks later, Mrs. Senn met Dr. Carlisle for lunch, and he offered her a job as his transcriptionist for the summer semester. She met him several days later to complete the paper work regarding the job, and they went back out to the country building. While there, she performed oral sex on him. These incidents of sexual relations continued through the summer of 1982. The money allocated by LSU-S for her transcriptionist job was depleted after three weeks, but she continued to work for him without pay. Throughout this time period, Mrs. Senn was 21 years old.

During the summer of 1982, Mrs. Senn became ill, experiencing gastrointestinal problems. She went to see Dr. James Woodfin Wilson, a specialist in internal medicine, in July of 1982. Dr. Wilson could not identify any physical reason for Mrs. Senn's symptoms. When he asked if she had any stress-causing situations in her life, she told him of her affair with Dr. Carlisle. In August of 1982, Mrs. Senn informed Dr. Carlisle that she could not continue the sexual part of their relationship. She did not enroll in *578 school that fall semester, and she married her husband, Robbie Senn, in November.

In the spring of 1991, Mrs. Senn separated from her husband and began seeing Dr. Jean Hollenshead, a clinical psychologist and herself a professor of psychology at LSU-S, for counseling regarding her marital problems. These sessions were tape recorded, and some of them were subsequently transcribed and admitted into evidence at trial. In Mrs. Senn's May 16, 1991, session with Dr. Hollenshead, she stated that her sister had asked about the relationship with a professor at LSU-S. In that same counseling session, Mrs. Senn responded affirmatively when Dr. Hollenshead asked if her father knew about the relationship, although in later sessions Mrs. Senn states that she remembers wanting to tell her father but not actually telling him. Dr. Hollenshead explained to Mrs. Senn in that session that this behavior by the professor, whose name was not then given to Dr. Hollenshead, was extremely unethical and that the professor was completely responsible for the harmful consequences of that behavior.

In their counseling session of September 4, 1991, Mrs. Senn discussed her relationship with Dr. Carlisle with Dr. Hollenshead again. Mrs. Senn referred to Dr. Carlisle by his first name. Dr. Hollenshead again emphasized to Mrs. Senn that Dr. Carlisle's behavior violated certain acceptable standards and that Mrs. Senn was not to blame. Dr. Hollenshead advised her:

This is occurring with many teachers, faculty members and students and we are just beginning to study the life long impact of that kind of relationship. We are beginning to recognize that by writing it into ethical standards and in some states the laws because it is so damaging and the person who has chosen to comply with that, the student, the patient, the client is in absolutely no way responsible.

By September 25, 1991, at the latest, the transcripts of these sessions reveal that Dr. Hollenshead knew that the professor involved in this affair with Mrs. Senn was Dr. Carlisle.

Dr. Hollenshead also kept written notes of her patient sessions. In one such note, Dr. Hollenshead indicates Mrs. Senn reported she had told some other person, identified in the note as B.B., some years ago about the situation with Dr. Carlisle, and that B.B. had told Mrs. Senn, "you ought to sue the bastard."

Mrs. Senn alleges the incidents with Dr. Carlisle caused her physical and psychological illness, including a problem having sexual relations with her husband and a lack of general responsiveness to her husband and children resulting in an extreme detachment from them. Mrs. Senn and her husband did not bring this action until October 14, 1992. Their petition sought damages under both tort and contract theory, naming the school as the sole defendant.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

LSU-S filed a peremptory exception of prescription on November 5, 1992. The plaintiffs countered urging the doctrine of contra non valentem. In support of Mrs. Senn's assertion of this doctrine, she presented the deposition of Dr. Hollenshead. However, in its pre-trial ruling on the exception, the trial court did not consider the actual transcripts of Dr. Hollenshead's counseling sessions with Mrs. Senn. Applying the doctrine of contra non valentem and recognizing that the petition sounded in both tort and contract, potentially making applicable the ten year prescriptive period, the trial court denied the exception of prescription.

Following a trial of the case, the trial court ruled in favor of LSU-S, dismissing all claims of the plaintiffs. The trial court found that Dr. Carlisle's conduct amounted to sexual abuse and misconduct which was not part of a consensual relationship with Mrs. Senn. However, the trial court found that the actions of Dr. Carlisle were not in the course and scope of his employment, thus the defendant was not vicariously liable for Dr. Carlisle's tortious conduct. The court further found that LSU-S was not independently negligent in its hiring and supervision of Dr. Carlisle, and that the university was not liable to Mrs. Senn for breach of contract as no contract existed between the parties.

*579 LAW

In its answer to this appeal, LSU-S assigns as error the trial court's denial of its peremptory exception of prescription.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
679 So. 2d 575, 1996 WL 474259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/senn-v-bd-of-suprs-of-la-state-univ-lactapp-1996.