From Thursday's Seventh Circuit decision in Sun v. Xu, written by Judge John Lee and joined by Judges Diane Wood and Doris Pryor:
Appellants Xingjian Sun and Xing Zhao accused their professor, Appellee Gary Gang Xu, of sexually and emotionally abusing them while the two were students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Sun and Zhao brought these allegations to UIUC administrators, and Sun later publicized them during an interview on a nationally televised morning news show {CBS This Morning}. Meanwhile, Appellant Ao Wang, a professor at Wesleyan University, learned of these allegations and posted on an online message board that Xu had a history of sexually assaulting students ….
The jury found that Sun had defamed Xu (and awarded Xu $50K on that theory), that Sun had intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Xu (awarding Xu an extra $50K for that), and that Wang had intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Xu (awarding him $300K in compensatory damages and $400K in punitives). The jury also rejected Sun's and Zhao's claims of rape, forced unpaid labor, and improper retaliation.
