Gott v. Berea College, 161 S.W. 204 (Ky. 1913), was a case heard before the Kentucky Court of Appeals wherein J. S. Gott—a restaurant owner—sued the private institution of Berea College when they issued a new policy in their 1911 student manual that forbid their students from patronizing establishments not owned by the college. Gott believed that the college and its officers had purposely acted unlawfully to injure his business and reputation by enforcing their new policy. The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the lower court of appeals and sided completely with Berea College in this case on the bases of in loco parentis. This was one of the earliest uses of in loco parentis by a private institution and would establish a precedent for decades to come.
Background
Berea College is located in Berea, Kentucky and is a private liberal arts college that falls into the category of work colleges. It was founded in 1855 as the first Southern United States college to be coeducational as well as racially integrated. They would typically release a new Student manual as they saw a need for it when governing their students. Over the 1911 summer vacation, the administration revised the student code. Previously, the student code had forbidden students from entering "any place of ill repute, liquor saloons, gambling houses" or similar places. Beginning with the fall semester, which started September 11, 1911, the college promulgated the updated student code, which forbade students from entering "eating houses and places of amusement in Berea not controlled by the college". The punishment for any violation against the new code was immediate dismissal. The exact date is unclear, but around Sep. 1st, 1911, Gott purchased a restaurant across the street from Berea College. This establishment had existed at this location for some years before Gott acquired it. It had sustained itself on the business of the students of the college up till then.