Court says NMC immune from suit • Munson junks sexual harassment case filed by former student By MAR-VIC CAGURANGAN Staff Reporter
Saying officials of a government entity are immune from lawsuits, Federal Judge Alex Munson threw out Friday the sexual harassment case filed by a former Northern Marianas College student against college officials and the US education secretary.
In dismissing the civil action filed by Meredith Oden, Munson invoked an earlier US Supreme Court ruling which holds that a school district cannot be held liable in damages for a complaint that does not involve official policy, such as a teacher’s sexual harassment of a student.
“I’m happy that Judge Munson agreed with our analysis. The college investigated the complaint and held a hearing. The judge agreed that the college did the right thing,” said Assistant Atty. General Sean Frink, who represented NMC, and its officials.
Named defendants in the lawsuit were NMC President Agnes McPhetres, US Education Secretary Richard Riley, members of the Board of Regents, and Bruno Dallas Pozza, the NMC instructor accused by Oden of sexually harassing her.
The court also ruled that a school district cannot be dragged into a civil action for a teacher’s misconduct especially if there was no showing of “deliberate indifference” on the part of the school administrators.
“Here, plaintiff made a complaint, defendant NMC held a hearing and defendant Dalla Pozza was disciplined,” the court noted.
A source said Dalla Pozza was suspended for a month and a half without pay, denied increase for the next two years, moved to a non-teaching position in a supervised capacity and placed on probation for five years.
Oden alleged that Dalla Pozza sexually harassed her three times. She mentioned an incident in which Dalla Pozza allegedly “cornered” her and “made threatening and offensive gestures” to her.
Oden, through her attorney Douglas Cushnie, sued NMC officials in their official and individual capacities for their alleged “failure to train, discipline and control Dalla Pozza.”
Cushnie had argued that NMC and its officials were not entitled to “any form of sovereign immunity,” saying the college institution was autonomous from the CNMI government.
Munson, however, disagreed, saying that NMC has all the elements that qualify such institution as a government entity.
“NMC is an ‘arm’ of the Commonwealth government and thus these individual defendants cannot be sued in their official capacities,” Munson said.
Quoting from a US Supreme Court doctrine, Munson added, “Government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory constitutional rights of which is a reasonable person would have known.”
