Gossett v. Oklahoma ex rel. Board of Regents for Langston University
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
245 F.3d 1172 (2001)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Marty Gossett (plaintiff) attended Langston University School of Nursing (school) (defendant) for one semester. Gossett struggled in one of his classes and ultimately received a D in the class. Under school rules, the grade required Gossett to be involuntarily dismissed from the school. Gossett sued the school, alleging gender discrimination. Gossett claimed that the school and its teachers did not provide the same level of assistance, opportunities, and counsel to male students as they did to female students. Gossett sought to introduce an affidavit from Deborah Guy, who was a former teacher at the school and a member of the school’s admissions committee. The affidavit contained Guy’s detailed opinion about the existence of a pattern of discrimination at the school against male students. The affidavit was based on Guy’s experience working at the school for approximately four years. The district court declined to admit the affidavit into evidence, ruling that Gossett had not established that Guy’s opinions were based on her firsthand knowledge. The district court granted the school’s motion for summary judgment. Gossett appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Seymour, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.