A split Supreme Court for the state of Washington issued a divided opinion last week, with the majority holding that a university’s duty to protect its students from foreseeable injury at the hands of other students only pertains to the confines of its campus or university sponsored and controlled events and depends on the student’s enrollment and presence on campus.
The 5-4 court answered two certified questions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit related to a negligence suit plaintiff Madeleine Barlow brought against Washington State University after a fellow WSU student, Thomas Culhane, raped her at a party at his off-campus apartment.
