LADERA International School of Saipan owner Yong Nam Park was sued in federal court by a former school principal who claimed to have suffered “extreme emotional stress.”
Richard Louis Nigh, through attorney Loren A. Sutton, accused Park of “willful and outrageous conduct” that “caus[ed] extreme emotional distress and amounting to an intentional tort…, negligent infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium.”
Nigh, who has taught English in Japan for 27 years prior to his employment as Ladera’s school principal in Aug. 2007, is requesting for a jury trial.
Nigh is also asking the court to award him “$100,000 for the “intentional infliction of emotional and physical distress”; punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial; $40,000 “as actual damages for [Nigh’s] inability to work or find a job consistent with his education, abilities, and past work history”; $50,000 plus costs, prejudgment and post judgment interest; and attorney’s fees.
In his complaint, Nigh said Park’s conduct was “extreme and outrageous, beyond all possible bounds of decency and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
Nigh said the “emotional distress [he] sustained…was extreme and severe and of a nature that no reasonable man could be expected to endure.”
The Variety tried but failed to get a statement from Park or Ladera school.
The complaint said Nigh was “incapacitated for over one year” after he “suffered extreme and severe physical and emotional distress.”
Nigh’s salary as principal of Ladera was $40,000 per annum, the complaint stated.
Nigh said Park asked him several times in 2007 to accept the job.
By Oct. 2007, the complaint said the relationship between Nigh and Park deteriorated after the then-principal received an e-mail from Park, stating “the honeymoon is over.”
The complaint said Park began to be “very aggressive” toward Nigh, yelling at him on a “daily basis” and criticizing him for “unforeseeable incidents on campus.”
“These tirades were never concerning specific area of criticism but rather just general antipathy and often occurred in the presence of students at the school and other employees and sometimes parents of students,” the complaint stated.
It added that Nigh, prior to his resignation sometime in Dec. 2007, tried to improve his working relationship with Park who requested Nigh to train the new principal and teach an algebra class for which he did “without further salary.”
Nigh sought a doctor’s help who gave him a prescription for stress.
In Jan. 2008, Nigh went to the Community Guidance Center where he was diagnosed to be “suffering from major depression.”
In the same month, Nigh got a call from Park who requested to meet him at the school.
There, Nigh was “confronted” by Park and the new principal, the complaint stated.
Nigh, it added, was “subjected to almost two hours of criticism and anger particularly from Park.”
After the meeting with Park, the complaint stated that Nigh’s mental and physical condition deteriorated further.
A visiting psychiatrist from Guam diagnosed him with “major depression.”
By this time, the complaint said, Nigh was “unable to sleep at night, was having nightmares and was unable to leave his house or associate with others.”
Nigh’s relationship with his wife, the complaint said. was also threatened since he was “unable to provide her with support or consortium.”
The doctor told Nigh that his condition was life threatening and was most probably the result of his treatment by Park during his employment at Ladera school, the complaint stated.
