Judge Refuses to Toss $50M Suit Claiming Yale Wrongly Confirmed Fake Degree
A Connecticut federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit that contends Yale University wrongly confirmed that an art history professor had received a doctorate there, leading to $50 million in losses for the South Korean university that hired her.
According to the suit, the professor, Shin Jeong-ah, had an affair with an aide to South Korea’s president, the Associated Press reports. The school, Dongguk University, says the resulting scandal resulted in $50 million in losses, including $18 million spent on a law school that failed to gain approval and $23 million in lost grants and donations, according to the Yale Daily News.
U.S. District Judge Tucker Melancon allowed claims for negligence and defamation, but dismissed a claim of reckless and wanton conduct, AP says. The trial date is June 4.
