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Shin v. Sunriver Preparatory School4/27/2005
Argued and submitted December 15, 2003.
Affirmed.
This case arises out of plaintiff's attendance at and eventual expulsion from defendant Sunriver Preparatory School (Sunriver Prep) when she was 17 years old. Plaintiff sued the school on various tort theories and prevailed after a jury trial. Sunriver Prep now appeals, asserting that the trial court erred (1) in denying the school a directed verdict on plaintiff's claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress; (2) in refusing to instruct the jury to compare the school's negligence with the fault of a third-party defendant intentional tortfeasor (plaintiff's father, Dong Eun Shin (Shin), who raped her while she was in the school's care); and (3) in concluding that plaintiff had a private right of action for the school's failure to report sex abuse under ORS 419B.010(1). We affirm as to the first two assignments of error; the parties agree that this disposition eliminates the need to address Sunriver Prep's third assignment.
Because this case involves review of the denial of directed verdict motions, we consider the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, who prevailed before the jury. See Seidel v. Time Ins. Co., 157 Or App 556, 561, 970 P2d 255 (1998).
Plaintiff was born and raised in Korea. In 1996, as a high school sophomore, plaintiff enrolled at Sunriver Prep, a private boarding school that enrolls about 140 students. A small number of those, including plaintiff, came from abroad as part of the school's international program. Most of the international students stayed at the school's International House, described in the parent-student handbook as a "dormitory-style home supervised by [the school's] faculty/parents." Other housing options, such as homestays, were "available at the school's discretion."
On her enrollment, plaintiff moved into the International House, where she and other resident students lived under a contract that provided that they were subject to their hosts' supervision "24 hours a day, 7 days a week." She was also subject to an enrollment contract that provided:
"The undersigned, on behalf of themselves and the above student, agree to accept the rules and regulations adopted by [Sunriver Prep]. [Sunriver Prep] reserves the right to discipline, suspend or dismiss any student whose behavior, performance, or progress, in the judgment of [Sunriver Prep], is deemed unsatisfactory or whose influence does not serve the best interests of [Sunriver Prep]. [Sunriver Prep] also reserves the right to dismiss any student whose parents' influence does not serve the best interests of [Sunriver Prep]."
In the middle of her junior year, with the approval of Patricia King, the head of the school, plaintiff and a German student moved into the home of Kim Wheeler, a part-time physics teacher at the school. Wheeler was given a copy of a "Homestay Agreement and Policy" (the homestay agreement), which purported to outline the "fundamental expectations and obligations" of the arrangement "in accordance with school policy and philosophy." After plaintiff moved in with the Wheelers, King gave the Wheelers a homestay orientation to explain what the school expected of homestay parents, including the areas covered by the agreement. King noted that plaintiff, who owned her own car, had been excepted from one rule against homestay students driving, but otherwise Wheeler understood that these were guidelines that the school expected would be followed. Wheeler, plaintiff, and her father later signed the homestay agreement.
The agreement covered virtually every aspect of plaintiff's life. For example, it provided that she could not leave campus during sc
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