Levers v. Mount St. Mary College
- Denise Cote
- 1:19-cv-10458
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Levers v. Mount St. Mary College: Judge Cote granted dismissal because FERPA rights cannot be enforced through Section 1983.
David Wallace Levers’s federal claim against Mount St. Mary College, Carlos Tonche, Jr., and Jannelle Haug was dismissed, and his state-law claim was deemed abandoned.
What happened
In Levers v. Mount St. Mary College, David Wallace Levers claimed that the college and two registrars improperly disclosed his academic records during a New York custody proceeding. He brought the federal claim under Section 1983, a law allowing certain federal rights to be enforced against state actors.
The defendants asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing mainly that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not create a federal right enforceable through Section 1983. Levers relied on older case law, but the court said that case law had been displaced by a later Supreme Court decision. Levers did not address his state-law claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress, so the court deemed that claim abandoned.
Judge Denise Cote granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss and directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. The court did not decide the defendants’ separate argument that they were not state actors.
The detailed version
- Levers v. Mount St. Mary College · No. 1:19-cv-10458
- Denise Cote
- Apr. 21, 2020
Background
David Wallace Levers sued Mount St. Mary College, Carlos Tonche, Jr., and Jannelle Haug under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that they violated the nondisclosure provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by disclosing his academic records during a custody-dispute proceeding in the Family Court of the State of New York County of Orange.
Levers also asserted a New York state-law claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. The defendants moved to dismiss the action on January 30, 2020. They argued primarily that FERPA does not create a federal right enforceable under Section 1983. They also argued that the court should not exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claim if the federal claim were dismissed and that the complaint did not plausibly plead negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Court’s analysis
The court examined FERPA’s nondisclosure provision, which generally restricts educational institutions receiving federal funds from releasing personally identifiable information in education records, subject to exceptions including judicial orders and lawfully issued subpoenas with advance notice to students.
The court held that FERPA’s nondisclosure provisions “create no rights enforceable under § 1983,” relying on Gonzaga University v. Doe. Because that rule was settled, the court dismissed Levers’s Section 1983 claim. The court rejected Levers’s reliance on pre-Gonzaga case law, explaining that the cited decision had been displaced by Gonzaga.
The court’s footnote states that Levers’s opposition did not address the negligent-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim. The court therefore deemed that claim abandoned. The court also stated that it did not need to reach the defendants’ argument that they were not state actors.
Disposition
Judge Denise Cote granted the defendants’ January 30, 2020 motion to dismiss. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the case. The opinion does not state that the dismissal was with or without prejudice.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.