Cases & Developments

Decision and Order granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment.  In the early morning hours of December 5, 2015, plaintiff and a friend, both students at the University of Rochester, left a fraternity party with two women the friend met through Facebook.  The women drove to a house where plaintiff and his friend were assaulted and held captive in retaliation for the robbery of several non-student drug dealers that a University football player had orchestrated the week before at the friend’s off-campus, University-owned apartment.  After the football player was arrested, a coach signed bail paperwork, and the University issued an interim suspension and banned him from campus.  Plaintiff brought multiple negligence claims against the University, and although he failed to meaningfully oppose the summary judgment motion, the court dismissed each claim on the merits.  The court dismissed the duty to warn claim finding that the Clery Act, which plaintiff asserted as the basis for a duty of care, does not create a standard of care actionable in tort.  His claim that the University selectively enforced its drug policy against the football player was dismissed for lack of evidence that the University was on notice of the player’s drug-related activity.  Plaintiff’s negligence claim based on the coach’s role in bailing the football player out of jail failed for want of causation since the retaliation plot began before the player made bail.  Finally, his claim that the University obstructed the investigation into his disappearance failed because only 35 minutes passed from when his friends reported him missing to when the University Public Safety reported it to the Rochester Police.