Jacobs v. Baylor School

• Decision Date: 16 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. 1:95-CV-428.,1:95-CV-428.
• Citation: 957 F.Supp. 1002
• Parties: Mary N. JACOBS, Plaintiff, v. The BAYLOR SCHOOL and Scott Douglass, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

957 F.Supp. 1002

Mary N. JACOBS, Plaintiff, v. The BAYLOR SCHOOL and Scott Douglass, Defendants.

No. 1:95-CV-428.

United States District Court, E.D. Tennessee.

December 16, 1996.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stephen T. Greer, Dunlap, TN, for Mary N. Jacobs.

Carter J. Lynch, III, Witt, Gaither & Whitaker, Chattanooga, TN, for The Baylor School.

Hoyt O. Samples, Mitzi Samples, Samples, Jennings & Pineda, Chattanooga, TN, for Scott Douglass.

MEMORANDUM

COLLIER, District Judge.

Before the Court are the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendant The Baylor School ("Baylor") (Court File No. 15) and the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Defendant Scott Douglass ("Douglass") (Court File No. 19). Plaintiff Mary N. Jacobs ("Jacobs") filed one Response to both motions (Court File No. 28). Douglass and Baylor filed Replies (Court File Nos. 27 and 31, respectively). Jacobs alleges claims of common law negligence, sexual harassment, assault and battery, and outrageous conduct against Douglass (see Court File No. 1, ¶¶ 8 and 9). Jacobs alleges claims of common law negligence and breach of contract against Baylor (see id. at ¶¶ 12 and 13). For the following reasons, the Court will GRANT the motions for summary judgment.

I. PERTINENT FACTS

A. General Background

Baylor is a coeducational college preparatory school located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which educates both day and boarding students. Jacobs entered Baylor as a junior boarding student from Shreveport, Louisiana during the Fall of 1990 when she was sixteen (16) years old. Jacobs did not perform well academically prior to attending Baylor (see, e.g., Court File No. 21, Ex.B., Austen-Riggs Medical Records at pp. 2-3;¹ Court File No. 21, Ex.C., Menninger Clinic Medical Records at pp. 1-3;² Court File No. 27, Ex.A., Jacobs' Interrog.Ans. at p. 2). Jacobs' early poor academic performance, dating from her fifth grade year, prompted her parents to begin sending her for psychiatric evaluation and therapy. From her fifth grade year until she began her junior year at Baylor in the Fall of 1990, she had met with or received some counseling and therapy from at least three different psychiatrists or psychologists (see id.). These evaluations generally characterized her as suffering from varying degrees of anxiety and depression. At the time she entered Baylor, she took anti-depressant medication (see id.).³

Except for the English class taught by Douglass, Jacobs did not do well academically during 1990-91, her first year at Baylor (Austen-Riggs at p. 20; Menninger Clinic at p. 3). It is during this academic year Jacobs alleges she had an intimate sexual relationship with Douglass. In the Summer of 1991, Jacobs attended an academic camp to retake a class she failed at Baylor. She passed this and other courses at the academic camp and returned to Baylor for her senior year in the Fall of 1991 but again did not perform well academically (Austen-Riggs at pp. 2-3; Menninger Clinic at pp. 3-4). On March 15, 1992 of her senior year, Jacobs turned eighteen (18) years old. Although she completed the 1991-92 academic year at Baylor, she did not graduate because of her poor academic record.

B. Evidence of an Unsound Mind

Jacobs underwent a psychiatric evaluation at the Menninger Clinic in early January 1992. The "Outpatient Psychiatric Examination Report," signed by Dr. Ilene B. Spitzer, M.D. and dated January 28, 1992 (Menninger Clinic at p. 13), states "[t]hough there is no evidence of hallucinations in any sphere, delusions, depersonalization, derealization or thought disorder, M.'s anxiety and often conviction that the other person is having thoughts about her emotional stability suggests a level of projection that at times borders on paranoia" (id. at p. 5) (emphasis added). When discussing her "intellect/cognition," the report states "[t]here was no evidence of tangentiality, circumstantiality, or loosening. Though there was no evidence of thought disorder or gross deficits in reality testing, there was a prominent tendency to distort reality" (id. at pp. 5-6) (emphasis added).

"M. has a long history of depressed mood, psychomotor retardation, fatigue, impaired concentration, and diminished pleasure to almost all activities consistent with a major depressive disorder. Anxiety also factors in prominently among her symptoms, though she does not suffer from a specific anxiety disorder" (id. at p. 10). The Menninger Clinic diagnosed her as having "[m]ajor depression, single episode, unspecified (Chronic type). (Principal Diagnosis) ... Dysthymia, primary type, early onset.... Personality disorder, not otherwise specified with avoidant, dependent, obsessional, and passive/aggressive traits" and recommended antidepressant medication (id. at p. 11).

Baylor and Douglass contend Jacobs engaged in several significant events after she turned eighteen years old and left Baylor in the Spring of 1992 (see Court File No. 16, pp. 3-4; Court File No. 21, pp. 3-4). First, she worked in a clothing store in Shreveport soon after going home. Second, she got a car in August 1992 and apparently had no restrictions on driving it. Third, for three weeks during November and December 1992, Jacobs participated in a wilderness hiking and camping trip in Idaho. Fourth, by January 1993 she had passed her G.E.D. high school equivalence exam. Fifth, although Jacobs entered Austen-Riggs Center in January 1993, during her time there she participated in various group activities, travelled to Washington, D.C. to attend a gay rights march, and worked part-time in the Austen-Riggs maintenance department and at a local mall to earn spending money. Sixth, the Austen-Riggs Center discharged her in June 1994.

Part of the report describing Jacobs' initial consultation meeting at Austen-Riggs on January 19, 1993 reads:

There is no evidence of a thought disorder or impaired reality testing. Her mood was depressed and her affect was constricted and bland. She complained of being obsessional and concrete. Her thought processes were organized and coherent with a tendency toward preoccupation towards details. Thought content was devoid of acknowledge delusions or paranoid ideation although at times she is suspicious. She denied a history of auditory or visual hallucinations, suicidal ideation and intent and homicidal ideation and intent. Her judgement is fair and insight poor. At the time of consultation Ms. Jacobs impressed me as fully competent to make such decisions as are involved in seeking treatment at a psychiatric hospital.

(Austen-Riggs at p. 4) (emphasis added); (see also id. at p. 1) (noting that Austen-Riggs is "an open hospital and that [Jacobs] would only be offered a consultation with possible admission if she consented"). The Austen-Riggs report filed about a month later on February 22, 1993 diagnosed Jacobs as having "Major Depression, in partial remission ... Personality Disorder, NOS, with schizoid, narcissistic, passive-aggressive, obsessive-compulsive, and avoidant features" (id. at pp. 28-9). At her discharge on June 9, 1994, Austen-Riggs reported her condition as "[i]mproved. She is not overtly depressed, denies suicidal or homicidal ideation, denies substance abuse, shows no thought disorder, and is more introspective" (id. at p. 7). The prognosis given for her was "fair, with continued treatment" (id.) (noting a prescription for Prozac, 20 mgs. per day).

C. Evidence of the Alleged Sexual Relationship

In the Fall of 1994, Jacobs began working as an independent contractor for David Tetrault ("Tetrault") in an investigative service agency near her residence in Northampton, Massachusetts. Jacobs claims she confided in Tetrault her concerns and questions about her relationship with Douglass (Court File No. 23, Jacobs Aff. ¶ 7; Court File No. 24, Tetrault Aff. ¶ 3). Jacobs states her conversations with Tetrault prompted her to inquire about her legal rights arising from the relationship with Douglass (Court File No. 23, Jacobs Aff. ¶ 7; Court File No. 24, Tetrault Aff. ¶¶ 3-5). Jacobs claims she did not "understand or realize she had been the victim of and injured by Douglass and Baylor, nor did she know of the existence of the right of action for such wrongs" until several months after leaving the Austen-Riggs Center in June 1994 (Court File No. 28, p. 6; see also Court File No. 23, Jacobs Aff. ¶ 7; Court File No. 24, Tetrault Aff. ¶¶ 3-5). Although Jacobs actually filed her Complaint on November 13, 1995 (Court File No. 1), the parties had previously entered a "tolling agreement" that set the filing date as July 10, 1995 (Court File No. 21, Ex. A.).

Baylor and Douglass refute Jacobs' claim with references to the medical records of Jacobs' evaluations by Austen-Riggs and the Menninger Clinic.⁴ Baylor and Douglass highlight several places within the medical records which allude to a suspected relationship between Jacobs and Douglass. First, the "Outpatient Psychiatric Examination Report" from the Menninger Clinic covers Jacobs' visit to the Clinic during the period of January 6-10, 1992 (id. at p. 1). The report states: "M. became involved in a very close relationship with a male English teacher. Though M. reported that `we were just good friends,' her questions to siblings about marrying someone older combined with this teacher's dismissal suggested an inappropriate level of intimacy between them" (id. at p. 3).

The report also states: "The dean [at Baylor] underscored her serious concerns about a continuing relationship between M. and her 10th grade English teacher, an older, married man. She indicated there was evidence to suggest an ongoing sexual affair between them. She expressed her suspicion that M. wants to come back to the school for that relationship" (id. at p. 9). Lastly, "[i]t was also recommended that the nature of M.'s relationship with her former English teacher be clarified, confronted, and terminated" (id. at p. 12).

Second, the "Social Work Examination Report"...