AMERICAN history is littered with frivolous lawsuits. A Virginia inmate once sued himself for $5 million because he got drunk and violated his religious beliefs, causing him to commit a crime. The inmate didn't have $5 million, so he asked the Commonwealth to pick up the expense. Three Yemeni men claiming to have ownership of Mars once sued NASA because of the Pathfinder landing program. Their suit stated, "We inherited the planet from our ancestors 3,000 years ago. Sojourner and Pathfinder ... began exploring it without informing us or seeking our approval."
And now, at the University, another comical and frivolous lawsuit has come up - the case of University Law student Marta Sanchez, suing University Law Professor Kenneth Abraham, who allegedly touched Sanchez's shoulder for a brief moment, causing her "extreme discomfort." The suit itself alleges assault and battery. In spite of Sanchez's traumatic past in Panama, which included multiple rapes beginning at age 11, this lawsuit is frivolous. If Sanchez has any loyalty or feelings for the University, she should drop the lawsuit now.
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On Feb. 26 Sanchez filed a suit against Abraham in Albemarle County Circuit Court. She is seeking a combined $35,000 in damages from this shoulder-touching incident. The price of this lawsuit is much more costly than Sanchez may realize. This suit inevitably will call Abraham's reputation and character into question, jeopardizing the teaching career of a nationally renowned lawyer and awarding-winning professor. Abraham is, by all accounts, a valuable asset to the University community. Shining a negative spotlight on him will reflect badly upon the entire School of Law, and could tarnish its consistent ranking in the top 10 law schools in the United States. The potential for a negative effect on the Law school is greater still in the midst of the current budget cutbacks in Virginia, limiting funding for most University programs and making the University vulnerable to falling in national rankings. The bad publicity that the University will receive, as well, could potentially damage its place in the eyes of the greater media as one of the best universities in the country. These factors, in and of themselves, are not worth $35,000 - the potential financial losses from lost potential tuition and exposure could be far greater than that sum.
It is true that Sanchez's past is by anyone's watch traumatic. She was raised during the reign of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Those were trying times. Noriega was a ruthless leader, and was himself "the rule of law" in Panama for years. Sanchez was molested and raped multiple times, beginning at a very young age. This is tragic; there is no denying it. However, to expect a faculty member - or anyone, for that matter - to know the complete background of a group of students, as well as how they'll react to any given action, is absurd and unrealistic. What's more disturbing is that Sanchez, in filing the suit, assumes as an educated student of law that this is a reasonable expectation of a professor.
The effects of Sanchez's suit run deeper still. Not only will bad press be an issue; the dynamic of the Law school itself will be disrupted as well. In the midst of this suit, Abraham surely will be inaccessible to students due to the heavy burden of time constraints placed upon him to deal with the suit. There will undoubtedly be rumor mills churning within the Law school student body and faculty over the status of the trial, and how it will turn out. If Abraham is unable to continue teaching his classes, students may have to be shifted from classes Abraham was going to teach to others, increasing overall class size. The inconvenience of all this, too, is worth far more than $35,000.
If Marta Sanchez has any heart or common sense, she will drop the lawsuit against Professor Abraham at once. The suit is by all accounts unjustified and frivolous. Most importantly, it will create a large amount of bad press and publicity for the University. In the long run the University will be pulled down to some degree from the status it now enjoys, and, ironically enough, from the caliber of education Sanchez was in Law School here to obtain.
(Austen Givens' column normally appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at agivens@cavalierdaily.com.)
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