DiPerna v. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Dist. Ct. did not err on granting defendant-school’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-student’s action alleging that defendant had breached contract by wrongfully dismissing plaintiff from its school based on finding that plaintiff had plagiarized paper. Breach of contract claim brought by student against private college is subject to arbitrary and capricious standard of review, and defendant had rational basis to find that plaintiff had plagiarized her paper, where: (1) teacher initially observed that section of paper had been drafted in more sophisticated word choice; and (2) plaintiff’s Turnitin score indicated that 92 percent of said section was similar to material found in other sources. Fact that plaintiff’s Turnitin score for entire paper was 10 percent did not require different result. Also, Dist. Ct. could properly grant summary judgment with respect to plaintiff’s claim for increased living and tuition expenses, since plaintiff had no viable claims arising from conduct that caused her to incur said damages.