Overruling three of its cases, Supreme Court holds public entities aren’t subject to treble damages in child sex abuse cases

In Los Angeles Unified School District v. Superior Court, the Supreme Court today broadens the protections given by a statute that exempts public entities from “damages imposed primarily for the sake of example and by way of punishing the defendant.” The court overrules three past decisions in holding a school district cannot be liable for treble damages that a different statute generally allows to be recovered by childhood sexual assault victims who prove the assault “was as the result of a cover up.”