United States Tenth Circuit

Simpson v. Univ. of Colorado Boulder, 06-1184, 07-1182

In a Title IX action brought by plaintiffs claiming that they were sexually assaulted by football players and recruits of the University of Colorado at Boulder, summary judgment for the university is reversed as the evidence presented on summary judgment was sufficient to support findings that: 1) the university had an official policy of showing high-school football recruits a "good time" on their visits to defendant's campus; 2) that the alleged sexual assaults were caused by the university's failure to provide adequate supervision and guidance to player-hosts chosen to show the football recruits a "good time"; and 3) that the likelihood of such misconduct was so obvious that defendant's failure was the result of deliberate indifference.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/06/2007
• Published 09/07/2007

Judges

• HARTZ, Circuit Judge., Before HARTZ, McKAY, and GORSUCH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Baine P. Kerr, Hutchinson Black and Cook, LLC, Boulder Colorado (Kimberly M. Hult, Christopher W. Ford, Hutchinson Black and Cook, LLC;  Honorable Patricia M. Wald, Washington, DC;  Pamela S. Karlan, Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA;  Jocelyn Samuels, Dina R. Lassow, Neena K. Chaudhry, Ellen Eardly, of counsel, Washington, DC, with her on the briefs, for the Plaintiff-Appellant Simpson;  and Seth J. Benezra, John A Culver, Benezra & Culver, LLC, Lakewood, CO, and Peggy R. Jessel, Peggy Jessel, LLC, Boulder, CO, with her on the briefs, for Plaintiff-Appellant Gilmore)., Jonathan J. Frankel, Thomas P. Olson, Katherine A. Gillespie, Sarah K. Hurwitz, Anjana Malhotra, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Women's Sports Foundation, American Association of University Women, AAUW Educational Foundation, National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, Security on Campus, and Professors Who Study Gender, Violence and Sports, in support of Plaintiffs-Appellants., Lenora M. Lapidus, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, NY, filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, California Women's Law Center, Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Legal Momentum, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., National Partnership for Women and Families, Northwest Women's Law Center, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Southwest Women's Law Center, and Women's Law Project, in support of Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Patrick T. O'Rourke, Office of University Counsel, Denver, Colorado, (David P. Temple, Office of University Counsel;  Daniel M. Reilly, Larry S. Pozner, Sean Connelly, Reilly, Pozner & Connelly LLP, Denver, Colorado, with him on the briefs), for the Defendants-Appellees.