(CN) — The Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld a jury's verdict in favor of a former porn actress who sued a community college for discrimination — though the federal appeals court did shave $1 million off the $1.7 million she was originally awarded.
Nicole Gililland, who appeared in adult films under the name Bree Barrett, sued Southwestern Oregon Community College and its district in 2019 for breach of contract and for violations of Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination. She said that Melissa Sperry, a nursing instructor and academic advisor, became aware of Gililland's previous career, and made "comments about the quality of a woman a nurse should be," according to the complaint.
One of those comments was: "Unclassy women shouldn’t be nurses, Nicole.”
Sperry later assigned Gililland extra work and accused her of plagiarism. After a hearing, she was kicked out of the nursing program. Gililland said that the unfair treatment caused her to become depressed and to attempt suicide.
In July 2022, a jury awarded Gililland $1.7 million in damages — $700,000 in economic damages, and $1 million in noneconomic damages, for emotional distress.
In reviewing the verdict, the three-judge panel agreed that the community college had entered into a contract with Gililland when it enrolled her into its nursing program, and it was bound by law to uphold its end. The panel rejected the college's argument that the two verdicts — the breach of contract claim and the Title IX claim — were irreconcilable, reasoning that, "Title IX contains several highly specific requirements that were not applicable to the contract claim."
The panel also held that Gililland’s economic losses were a foreseeable result of the breach of contract, and it was up to the jury to determine economic damages.
However, the judges ruled Gililland was not entitled to noneconomic damages, because "Oregon follows the general rule that 'emotional distress damages are not recoverable'”' for breach of contract, except when the emotional distress is caused by physical pain.
After her experience at Southwestern Oregon Community College, Gililland moved to the East Coast and enrolled in Southern New Hampshire University, where she graduated summa cum laude. She then enrolled in law school at the University of Massachusetts.
Neither Gililland's lawyers nor Southwestern's lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment on the ruling.
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