MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline) – The father of a woman who committed suicide after an alleged sexual assault will still be able to argue her alleged assailant is liable for her wrongful death.
The suicide of Megan Rondini is not an event that breaks the chain of causation linking the alleged assault and Rondini’s death, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled May 7. The decision was made in response to a certified question from the federal judge hearing Michael Rondini’s wrongful death lawsuit.
That federal judge has concluded there is substantial evidence that Terry Bunn Jr. sexually assaulted Megan. The two met at a Tuscaloosa bar in 2015, while Megan was a student at the University of Alabama, and he allegedly drugged and raped her.
Bunn was never criminally charged and argued he couldn’t be liable for her suicide. This BuzzFeed article details the incident (it is also the subject of a defamation lawsuit by two investigators who the lawsuit says didn't take Megan's complaints seriously enough).
“It is unnecessary for us to define today the universe of intentional torts that might appropriately give rise to a wrongful-death action based on a suicide. The question certified by the federal court concerns an alleged sexual assault,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote.
“To answer that question, we need declare only that the suicide of a person who is the victim of one specific intentional tort -- sexual assault -- is not a superseding cause that will absolve the alleged assailant of liability as a matter of law.
“Whether other intentional torts stemming from a defendant's extreme and outrageous conduct that causes severe emotional distress to the victim might also support a wrongful-death action after a suicide is a question for another day.”
Megan was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder following her encounter with Bunn, who claimed the sex was consensual. She also suffered from anxiety and depression, and she transferred to Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 2016.
An intake form at the SMU health clinic from February 2016 indicates suicidal thoughts. She committed suicide on Feb. 26, 2016.