Penn State May Seek Immunity After Skirting Public Laws

[seafan]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Pennsylvania State University, after years of skirting public-school rules, may claim protection from liability under commonwealth laws that shield government entities, if it faces suits related to a child-sex scandal.

Moody's Investors Service is examining the school's relationship with the state to see whether claims of sovereign immunity apply, analysts said yesterday. Fallout from abuse charges against an assistant football coach and perjury accusations against two administrators led to the dismissal of Joe Paterno, the head coach, and Penn State's president.

The commonwealth's flagship state-supported school has successfully claimed to be exempt from freedom-of-information laws that apply to most public institutions, including competitors such as Ohio State University and the University of Texas. Penn State's unusual position has for years shielded the school and its football program from public scrutiny.

.....

The school's credit rating may be cut in the wake of the sex-abuse scandal, New York-based Moody's said last week in a report. It cited the potential for lawsuits, settlements, and declines in philanthropic and state support, as well as "significant management and governance changes."




Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/11/16/bloomberg_articlesLURFYN6K50Z3.DTL

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This is exploding.

[Vincardog]

1. This is exploding. GOOD

[Goblinmonger]

2. Just declare bankruptcy

Works for the Catholic Church.

[DURHAM D]

4. An opportunity for Penn State to privatize?

They can sell off campus assets paid for by the taxpayers to big donors and the Second Mile Foundation for like $1. Then PS can rent it back with taxpayer funds. A Republican wet dream...

[julian09]

7. Penn State is morally bankrupt

let them pay

[dtexdem]

3. I reiterate that the university should be known as State Penn University.

It needs to be knocked for a loop.

[Divine Discontent]

6. State Penn... so true. and what the f99k do they think they're doing? protecting their arses again!

this is going to make them a very very very (not just a very very if they hadn't done this) disliked University! I would consider transferring if I was going there.



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[frylock]

10. tshirt

[Cognitive_Resonance]

5. What a stinking cesspool. Demand accountability. nt

[AngryAmish]

8. I looked this up the other day and sovereign immunity not available for wilful acts

Not reporting these things are wilful, or at least I want to ask a jury about that.

[pnwmom]

18. That sounds right. And they didn't comply with the law,

so why should they be immune?

[AngryAmish]

21. Because they make the law

Short and dirty sovereign immunity primer: Sovereign immunity comes from English common law where you can't sue the king, since he is king and therefore cannot do wrong. It was a American common law concept but most states have sovereign immunity law that allow themselves to be sued under some circumstances. One must look at the particular sovereign immunity statute (and the cases interpreting same) to decide if it applies. What I read (in an article) is the in PA there is no immunity for wilful acts.

[Divernan]

25. Penn State is immune under Pennsylvania's sovereign immunity statute.

Retired trial lawyer/state lawyer/law professor here. Note to Angry Amish - you're from Illinois, right? Illinois law does not govern - Laws on sovereign immunity are state specific.

I don't know what cretin posing as a lawyer at Moody's is researching this, because the answer is available in about 10 seconds on the web. I had a product liability case involving a faulty punch press at a vocational technical school in Westmoreland County PA, several decades ago, and the school district successfully pled sovereign immunity. I just researched the law to see if had changed and it had not. In 1980 the Pennsylvania legislature enacted the Sovereign Immunity Act and it is still the governing law. Remember that this kind of law varies from state to state.

The Sovereign Immunity Act provides that as a general rule the Commonwealth is immune from suit. For cases in which a person or agency without immunity might otherwise be held liable, the Act provides nine exceptions, where sovereign immunity will not apply. These exceptions include:

1. Vehicle liability – the operation of any motor vehicle in the possession or control of a Commonwealth party;
2. Medical-professional liability – acts of health care employees of commonwealth agency medical facilities or institutions or by a commonwealth party who is a doctor, dentist, nurse or related health care personnel;
3. Care, custody or control of personal property in the possession or control of Commonwealth parties; however, sovereign immunity is not waived as to the “use of nuclear and other radioactive equipment, devices and materials”;
4. Commonwealth real estate, highways and sidewalks – dangerous conditions of real estate;
5. Dangerous conditions created by potholes and sinkholes on Commonwealth highways;
6. Care, custody or control of animals in the possession or control of a Commonwealth party, including police dogs and horses;
7. Liquor store sales at Pennsylvania liquor stores by employees of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board “if such sale is made to any minor, or to any person visibly intoxicated, or to any insane person, or to any person known as an habitual drunkard, or of known intemperate habit”;
8. National Guard – acts of members of the Pennsylvania military forces; and
9. Toxoids and vaccines – liability may be imposed on the Commonwealth a toxoid or vaccine is not manufactured in Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania must take responsibility for it.

On top of the fact that the Penn State situation does not match up with any of the exceptions, the statute also requires written notice of any claimed injuries and/or damages within 6 months.

[KamaAina]

9. "State-related"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_State#Organization_and_administration

Penn State is a "state-related" university, part of Pennsylvania's Commonwealth System of Higher Education. As such, although it receives funding from the Commonwealth and is connected to the state through its board of trustees, it is otherwise independent and not subject to the state's direct control. For the 2006–2007 fiscal year, the university received 9.7 percent of its budget from state appropriations, the lowest of the four state-related institutions in Pennsylvania.

Best of both worlds, I suppose. :eyes:

[Beowulf]

13. That's the way the University has played it

It's private when it comes to releasing budget details or other business. It's public when it comes to paying taxes. Just a couple of examples.

[Divernan]

26. Other state related schools are Pitt, Temple & Lincoln Universities.

Those schools would also join Penn State in fighting tooth-and-nail any claim that "state-related" universities cannot claim sovereign immunity.

[SoapBox]

11. Outrageous...

simply, outrageous.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. News story: Maybe something might happen

Lynch mob: Outrageous! Unbelievable! Burn them at the stake!

Do you people know how to read?

[freshwest]

14. Slippery and as expected.

[TorchTheWitch]

15. too late

Wouldn't cover this scandal since it can't be retroactive. As I recall it doesn't cover willful acts either.

The simple fact that they're looking into this speaks volumes.

[pnwmom]

17. They're talking about laws already in place. Nothing would be done retroactively.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. Where does it say anyone at Penn State is looking into it?

:shrug:

[Solly Mack]

16. "has for years shielded the school and its football program from public scrutiny"

Gosh, no forms of abuse could ever occur under such circumstances.

Damn.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. Public record laws applied to all PA state institutions and agencies

until 2008, when the law changed.

The previous law meant the requester had to prove case to get material - from the Department of More Vehicles or Penn State or any other state entity.

In 2008 they changed the law to requiring the institution or agency to prove why they shouldn't release the material.

Penn State and three other schools were exempted from the public records act.

So, the notion of "for years" is a bit slippery and even dishonest. I guess back to 2008 is, technically, years, but that's not how most people would characterize the phrase "for years." Before 2008, every single state agency in PA had the same "shields" in place as Penn State, which makes it not particularly sinister or special. An honest account would have noted that, but this article is the most dishonest one I've seen yet. It basically takes a speculative claim (here's what PSU MIGHT do), places it as the lede as if it is some fact of what they are doing, then proceeds apace to completely misrepresent the state records law. It's as shoddy journalism as I've seen in some time, and a clear indication that editors are now allowing next to anything in order to sate the bloodlust.

[LiberalFighter]

19. I would want Penn State to be thrown out of the Big Ten.

[Critters2]

20. And NCAA death penalty...for several years.

There need to be consequences for the whole football program.

[LibertyLover]

23. A question for you -

why do you want to penalize students at Penn State who are playing football, especially those on scholarships without another way to pay for college, and who had nothing whatsoever to do with either Sandusky or the Second Mile scandal?

[Aaria]

28. The death penalty has been given out 5 times, all for recruting violations. Did the fans or players

or students have anything to do with those? No. So the question should be, is protecting your football organization from a child rape scandal worse then recruiting violations? I would say ,Yes. They should be out of the football business for a couple of years if not forever.

[mntleo2]

27. This is because this law is used the opposite way ...

...and when someone is falsely accused (particularly by CPS), their lives ruined, their families scattered to the wind, labeled for life as a sex offender, unable to get work, unable to rent a home, they cannot sue, even after proving in court the case manager and all their minions lied. And abuse accusations false or not remain for life on state lists that anyone can access. Thanks to the lowering of legal proof, ALL kinds of abuse is considered as fact even from merely some official saying it is. No legal remedies to be found, even after committing perjury.

I know several of these, where the kids were interrogated for hours over and over to the point of just going along with the CPS worker to shut them up. Kids usually do not lie, but will go along with authority figures whether true or not. Years later when they recant, they are ignored, with the accused living in hell for the rest of their lives. As a matter of fact, case managers who tried to report the recantations of children were fired themselves ~ and then THEY were accused of abuse. See the Wenatchee Witch Hunt case where a CPS case manager and supervisor were fired for reporting recantations of supposed victims, MA Witch Hunt cases, and the McMartin Case in CA. Instead these states sent dozens of innocents to prison for decades and got sued for millions ~ which prompted the changing of laws in their favor followed by many other states in CYA mode.

Immunity is so the case manager or any other state official never have to face any consequences if they lie or are proven to have withheld important evidence, which happens all the time. Prosecuting attorneys, even after proven to have lied and sent innocent people to death row, they are immune.

There is a lot of money involved through Title IV, where CPS workers are given bonuses for every child they take, and with the false accusations they make. In my state in over 30 years not ONE CPS worker has gotten so much as a slap on the wrist, even after being proven in court to have lied. These are ALL state workers and their contractors.

I am not defending this guy, but the hysteria already being whipped up is due to a lot of ignorance of the law and what works. It promotes false allegations and hysteria that ruins entire families and their communities. Real pedophiles are sick. They need help. As a matter of fact if given real treatment, they have less than a 3-5% chance of re-offending ~ unless they are violent offenders, which most pedophiles are not. This lack of recidivism is with absolutely no support from anyone after they get out of prison, which imo is an impressive show after the fact these (mostly) men are left bereft of anyone or anything.

I am just saying that, thanks to all the false accusations and the horrible consequences for merely pointing the finger, the consequences have reeked havoc on millions of families. Now they cannot seek legal remedies. This makes REAL abuse accusations the other side of the coin. Immunity is immunity. Therefore any state official who is culpable is never held accountable.

My 2 cents

Cat in Seattle <--- a CSA victim who has found that forgiveness of first myself for blaming myself and then forgiveness of the perpetrator after realizing he was sick, was the only way I was able to heal. Making him a criminal did *not* help me, it made everything worse.

[defendandprotect]

29. kr