Life Chiropractic College, Inc. v. Fuchs

• Decision Date: 15 October 1985
• Docket Number: No. 71149,71149
• Citation: 337 S.E.2d 45,176 Ga.App. 606
• Parties: , 29 Ed. Law Rep. 416 LIFE CHIROPRACTIC COLLEGE, INC. v. FUCHS.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 45

337 S.E.2d 45

176 Ga.App. 606, 29 Ed. Law Rep. 416

LIFE CHIROPRACTIC COLLEGE, INC. v. FUCHS.

No. 71149.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Oct. 15, 1985.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 29, 1985.

Certiorari Denied Nov. 26, 1985.

Donald F. Walton, Therese S. Barnes, Atlanta, for appellant.

Walter W. Furlong, Atlanta, for appellee.

BANKE, Chief Judge.

The appellee, a former student at Life Chiropractic College, Inc., was suspended from that institution for allegedly falsifying four grade-change forms. He was, however, given the right to apply for readmission at the end of three academic quarters. Without making such application, he brought the present action to recover actual and punitive damages from the college based on breach of contract, tortious interference with contractual rights, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, slander, and unjust enrichment. We granted the college's application for interlocutory appeal from the denial of its motion for summary judgment.

The appellee had been a student at the college for approximately 10 academic quarters at the time of his suspension. During that period, the college had a procedure whereby an instructor could change a grade given to a student by completing and signing a change form and forwarding it to the registrar's office. In May of 1980, four such forms were submitted to the registrar's office purporting to change grades previously given to the appellee, in each instance a failing or incomplete grade being changed to the equivalent of an "A." Upon investigation, it was determined by the college that none of these forms had in fact been signed by the instructor whose purported signature appeared thereon.

A meeting of the "Student Judiciary Committee" was subsequently convened to deal with the matter. At this meeting, each of the four instructors in question appeared and denied having signed the form purporting to bear his or her signature. In addition, an employee of the registrar's office testified that the appellee had delivered one of the completed grade-change forms to her personally. Although the appellee was not allowed either to be present when these witnesses testified or to cross-examine them, he was allowed to address the committee and to offer such explanation as he desired, at which time he simply denied having had anything to do with the forms. At the conclusion of the hearing, the committee voted to recommend that the appellee be permanently dismissed from the college; however, as previously indicated, the college instead suspended him with the right to apply for readmission at the end of three quarters.

In opposition to the college's motion for summary judgment, the appellee relied on testimony by one of the four instructors whose signatures had been forged on the grade-change forms to the effect that he (the instructor) had been pressured by the academic dean of the college into giving the appellee a failing grade in a course in which the appellee had actually earned a passing grade. The instructor maintained that when he had asked the dean for an explanation, the dean had responded, "Well, you know of course [the appellee] is a homosexual." The instructor further maintained that some of his previous statements in the case had been made under duress, in the form of implied threats of dismissal from his job; however, he did not disavow his previous testimony that he had not signed the grade-change form purporting to bear his signature. Held:

1. The appellee's breach of contract claim is based on the proposition that the college bulletin or catalogue created an implied promise by the school to reward each student who paid the required tuition and fees and completed the prescribed courses with both an education and a degree in the field of chiropractic care. There is, however, an express provision in the bulletin to the effect that suspension or expulsion may result from student misconduct such as lying, cheating, or stealing; and the appellee does not take the position that falsifying a grade-change form would constitute insufficient ground for expulsion under this provision. He instead contends that, by failing to allow him to confront the witnesses who testified at the judiciary committee hearing, the college violated another provision in the bulletin specifying that "[d]ue process is followed in all [disciplinary] cases."

Being a private institution, the college was not, of course, constitutionally required to provide the appellee with the full panoply of due process protections which would be applicable at a state-sponsored educational institution. See generally Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 95 S.Ct. 729, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975); Dixon v. Ala. Bd. of Education, 294 F.2d 150 (5th Cir., 1961). Moreover, it has been held that a provision in a private university bulletin to the effect that no student shall be dismissed without "due process" does not contractually obligate the institution to provide the full range of constitutional due-process protections enjoyed by students at tax-supported institutions, but only those procedures specifically provided for in the bulletin itself. See Jansen v. Emory Univ., 440 F.Supp. 1060 (N.D. Ga.1977), aff'd 579 F.2d 45 (5th Cir., 1978). The bulletin published by the college in this case did not guarantee the right of confrontation of adverse witnesses during proceedings before the student judiciary committee. Therefore, our inquiry with respect to the appellee's breach of contract claim will be limited to whether the college may be deemed to have violated his due...